Literacy experts say if parents are emotionally attached to the story they're telling, they can boost their own child's engagement with a book — and with reading throughout their life, abc.net.au wrote.
When English teacher Alicia Edwards found out she was pregnant with her son Flynn, her mom gifted her a special book.
It was ‘The Little Smasher’, the first book Edwards had ever learned to read as a child.
It's a picture book about a little girl who breaks everything, so her sister dubs her ‘The Little Smasher’.
A few weeks after Flynn was born, Edwards read it to him.
Now, at 18 months old, Flynn is always excited to read ‘The Little Smasher’ with his mom.
"I've always been a bookworm myself, being an English teacher," Edwards said.
"Books are a pretty big part of how I live my life. They're a big part of my existence," Edwards said.
"So being able to read the same book that I first read, to him, was a pretty special moment.
"I wanted to have [that] moment in my memory bank forever. It was special."
Parents can make a big difference to a child's interest in reading, by sharing their old favorite books, according to author Yvonne Mes, who is president of Booklinks, the Center for Children's Literature.
Mes said children would "see and feel their parents' passion" when reading a book they are emotionally connected to.
"If you love a book, they can feel that you're excited about it, that it's important to you and that you're sharing something of importance with them," she said.
"Children are fidgety. They can't sit still. But if you read a book with them — you've got to use the voices and all that sort of stuff — they'll sit still and become entranced by the story."
Reading an old favorite could also help children see their parents from a new perspective, Mes said.
"I think they see you as somebody who's also been a child, not just mommy and not just a grown-up, but mommy who was once a child and mommy who once sat on her mommy's lap reading the same book," she said.
"So they can see us as a child who also loved stories, and there's a connection there that you might not otherwise get."
Fiona Stager has owned bookshops her whole working life and said the benefits of reading to children are unparalleled.
"All the research keeps saying the best thing we can be doing for our children is reading to them," she said.
"It's much more important than any advanced classes, more important than even what school they go to," Stager said.
"It needs to be something that both parents and children enjoy. I don't think it should be a chore; it should be done every day at any time of the day, and anywhere."
Stager said it was extra special for children when their parents had an emotional connection with the story.
"I think it's a reason why there are some titles that are 30, 40, even 50 years old and we're still selling them," she said.
Promote a love of books
But if your child doesn't enjoy any of your old favorites, don't despair.
Mes said while a love of certain stories would often pass down the generations, it was not always the case.
"You'll often see a book that's been really important to you, as a parent, also becomes important to the child. And if it doesn't, that's okay too," she said.