October 07, 2013

Professor Shagoury points to benefits of reading at home

With her daughter Meghan Rose, Ruth Shagoury co-authors a book for parents to encourage reading with young children at home.

Working from personal memories of reading at home with children and grandchildren, professor Ruth Shagoury and her daughter Meghan Rose have co-authored “Home Is Where the Books Are: Creating Literate Spaces, Choosing Books, and Why It Matters,” a guide for parents on reading with infants through kindergartners. Shagoury offers reading strategies, lists of favorite titles, and tips for turning kids into lifelong readers.

“Kids and people in general are just surrounded by words and print and signs,” Shagoury said in an interview with The Oregonian. “But they don’t (always) think about how to make their home necessarily a fun and interesting place where kids assume that books and reading are natural.”

Shagoury’s research focuses on language and literacy development among diverse populations of students. She has taught classes and workshops for everyone from elementary school students to adult learners. She complements her love of reading with prolific writing, and is the author of 13 books. To learn more about Shagoury, including information about her books and scholarly articles, read her faculty profile.