Author Shares Which Books Kids Should Really Be Reading, and It'll Make You Sigh With Relief

As a kid, I used to walk around with a book under my arm everywhere I went — literally, everywhere. At dinner with my parents I'd read up until the food came (then I'd read around my plate), on the short bus ride to school I'd try to fit in as many pages of my current read as possible, I'd polish off page-turners under the covers at 4 a.m. when I 100 percent should have been sleeping for hours, on road trips I'd devour entire novels before we reached our destination . . . you get the idea.

And the best part of being a bookworm from a young age was that I got to grow up with stories that I still love now, mainly Harry Potter. My parents let me read and reread that series to my heart's content (I still revisit the series every year to this day), not caring that I had the same few books in my hands, just loving that I wanted to keep reading.

Children's book author Kate Messner is of the same philosophy as my parents, and her recent tweets about kids' Summer (and non-Summer) reading choices are being praised on Twitter. If you're a parent worried about your kids' reading habits, they'll make you sigh with relief.

"I've been out of the classroom a few years, but I still get stopped by parents in the community, asking what their kids should be reading over the Summer. My always answer: 'What they love,'" reads Messner's July 14 tweet. The author continued the tweet thread, sharing stories about concerned parents she's had to reassure over the years and driving home the reason why kids reading what they love — and not what they're forced to read — is the best case scenario.