What are the benefits of reading, you may ask? Well, in this blog we are dealing with fairy tales, but most of the kids know fairy tales only from television or cinema, not from books. There's a chance they were introduced to some fairy tale characters for the first time in computer games!

Yet we should not diminish the importance of books. They have some old fashioned feel and they are certainly not attractive as video versions with tons of special effects. But books have some great advantages too!

Reading can create very strong bonds between friends and family members (illustration Jessie Willcox Smith)

Let me emphasize only a few benefits of books reading for children:

1. Every kid can absorb information with his own pace so he can get much more from a story written in a book than a story, presented in a video. Videos are done by standards. A musical video, for instance, is almost always three to five minutes long. A full movie is almost always 90 to 120 minutes long. And so on. The reason is in distribution channels which are standardized to gain maximum profit at minimum expense. Books are less limited in format.

Movies are also a massive media and this means information in movies is often reduced to the level appropriate to the laziest minds. So audience, capable of more complex information doesn’t get what it is capable. On the other side, the audience with a slower capacity of processing a lot of info doesn’t get any chance to reread some more difficult parts and doesn’t get a chance to improve their knowledge. We all know knowledge is power!

2. Books, even richly illustrated, require a lot of imagination from reader. In books, you can’t notice all details, shown in movies.  Even if the writer expands the narration to very tiny details, it's absolutely impossible to describe everything the reader might be interested in. You can’t see how somebody walks, talks, changes... But you can imagine!

And imagination is a prerequisite for creativity. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe the technology we are surrounded with can and should help our society, but I think we can benefit a lot from some additional creativity as well. Actually, even more, because the technology, as advanced as it may be, is still just a tool. And nobody believes a knife or fire determines us just like some believe social media do.

3. Reading books increase vocabulary and memory. This means an avid reader has much better communication skills than people who don’t read. In the era of information all communication skills are more than welcome, especially if those skills are supported with above average memory. Good memory gives us a chance to learn from mistakes. Just like in fairy tales, remember? The stories where the main character makes a mistake but next time does his or her task better and achieves the goal in the end?

Readers of this blog already know me well enough to know I always stop at number three. I am sure everybody can expand this list to seven, nine, or even ninety-nine benefits of reading. So your comments are more than welcome!