Many mamas worry because one or more of their children don’t want to read. I remember that struggle well myself. Two of our children enjoyed reading almost from the start, but one of our children did not. I confess that it was a big worry for this homeschool mama.

One day when our reluctant reader was in the sixth grade, I went to the public library, as I did so often in those homeschool days. I stood in front of a shelf in the children’s department. I can still remember where I was standing and what the bookshelf looked like. As I stood there, I wondered, “What can I check out for her to read?” Little did I know that it would be a momentous day in her life and mine.

My eyes fell on one of A.A. Milne’s original Winnie-the-Pooh books. I brought it home. Our daughter devoured it. Before long, this girl who didn’t enjoy reading had finished Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner and Now We are Six and When We Were Very Young.

“What?” I thought. “A.A. Milne only wrote four Winnie-the-Pooh books!?” 

But for this child, those four were enough. Winnie-the-Pooh was a precious gift that continues to bless our now grown-up daughter. She’s a wife and mother today. She still loves to read and she loves homeschooling her children. The oldest of those children is now devouring one book after another, too.

It may not be Winnie-the-Pooh for your child, but it might be. Those stories are not stories to read one time. Author A.A. Milne and illustrator E. H. Shepard understood how a child thinks and feels and how grown-ups think and feel, too. C.S. Lewis said: "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond." For our family, Winnie-the-Pooh was exactly that kind of book.

Winnie-the-Pooh might not be your solution, but I encourage you to keep searching for one. It might take years, like it did for us — and it just might come when you least expect it, like it did for me. Your child is blessed simply because you care enough to try and to keep on trying.