This post is part of my paid ambassadorship with Fandango. Post was originally published on Fandango Family Room. All opinions, thoughts and experiences are my own.
It all started with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie…which lead to the book, which led to a new book, and now the anticipation the arrival of a movie based off a book. What started you ask? Keep reading to find out.
When movies inspire reading I consider that a win/win! As a kid, I adored reading. There were very few times you wouldn’t catch me with a book in hand. Even as an adult, I find myself reading hours upon hours, and not wanting to put books down. I keep my Kindle Fire full of hundreds of books, so I always have something on hand. If you know me, you know I love to read.
Luckily, the love for reading seemed to pass on to my daughter and from early on she was very interested in books and what they had to offer. My boys are another story, it was always hard getting them to pick up a book. Thankfully, books that have been made into movies helped with that.
A few years ago, we went and saw the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. The trailers looked hysterical. We were excited to make a family day at the movies. We headed to our theater to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. As expected, the kids laughed through the movie. I knew it had been a wonderful idea as I watched my kids giggle and laugh. Just how good of an idea was it? I was soon going to find out.
A few days after the movie, my boys and the girl, were asking me to pick up Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. My kids….begging to read. I didn’t pick up just the first book, but every single book in the series that was out at the time, I had high hopes. If my kids were going to read this book I had an inkling it would lead to reading the rest of the series.
How right I was! All three of them loved the first book and quickly jumped into the others. It made me so excited to see them longing to read one book after another. Thankfully, with movies based off books, like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and a few others, my kids are wanting to read all the time. Which, has lead them to reading non-movie books as well.
Not only does seeing a movie based on a book get them excited about reading, but after reading the books, it gets them anxiously waiting for the next movie to hit theaters. Take Percy Jackson for example. My oldest saw the movie, then started reading the books, and has been continually reading each one as it comes out. Now, he is taking that anticipation he had over the book release, and is gearing it to the release of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. That means more family fun at the movies for us.
He is hoping they decide to make a movie out of every single one and I, as a mom, am totally okay with that. Thanks to the movie, that lead to reading, we have had many conversations about Roman Gods, Greek Gods, myths, and plenty of other topics touched in the Percy Jackson series. What’s even cooler?? I know he will learn about this stuff in high school history, like I did, and have a feeling because of the books and movies, it will get his undivided attention. Who knew movies could impact even their grades?
I am definitely keeping a watch over on Fandango’s Family Room for upcoming movies that may inspire the next book series my kids want to read. It may take seeing the movies to get my kids to continue to enjoy reading for a bit longer, but as long as it gets them to enjoy reading, I consider that a win in my parenting book!
Head over to Fandango’s Family Room to see what movies are playing in theaters and purchase your tickets right there to go to one of your local Fandango ticketing theaters (no waiting in lines to buy tickets). You can also read reviews of movies, watch trailers, and see some celebrity interviews. It truly is a great place when you are gearing up for that family movie day.
Toni Patton
Latest posts by Toni Patton (see all)
- Sunsets Are My Reminder… - May 27, 2024
- Pensacola Beach’s “Bands on the Beach” 2024 Schedule Announced - February 21, 2024
- When The Baby Goes to College: I’m Not Ready…But, oh, How Ready She Is - August 22, 2023
I love Fandango too! My daughter is just now starting to enjoy reading and I’m hoping some of the summer movies inspire her to read more!
Thanks for the tips! I didn’t know about Fandango’s Family Room!
I’ve never thought of movies leading kids to read. I used to be the opposite way when I was younger. If I knew there was a movie based on a book I would want to read the book first!
My Son saw the Percy Jackson movie #1, and he immediately started reading the books. He has almost finished the entire series in a month! He just loves them. Now he is anxiously awaiting the Sea of Monsters movie to come to our area so we can go see it!
I love Fandango, but I didn’t realize that they had so many cool features on their site. Very cool!
I love reading books that have been made into movies, if just to compare and contrast them,
Being homeschoolers we use book/movie combos a lot in our home. We had our daughter read War Horse, The Hobbit, The Life of Pi all for her schooling and then watched the movies. It’s great incentive to get her to read too! She’s really looking forward to the next Percy Jackson movie as she’s read the whole series of those books.