This was the message that Jim Trelease, author of the best-seller The Read-Aloud Handbook, gave to a roomful of teachers and parents at Sonesta Beach Hotel last week.

"The more that kids are read to, the more they want to read,'' the visiting American author said.

Captivating his audience with a natural humour and an obvious love for the subject, Mr. Trelease analysed many ways by which both teachers and parents could help children to enjoy reading.

He said it was most important that children were read to at home and at school and that they were also given the chance to read for themselves.

Mr. Trelease also chased away the taboos set against reading in bed and reading comic books, saying that the advantages far outweighed any possible harm.

He advised putting book baskets in places where children like to read, such as the bathroom and at the table.

Mr. Trelease also warned that watching too much television "ate away at childhood''.

"It's not what a child watches that's the problem, the fact is that they're watching,'' he said.

He went on to say that children who watch more than ten hours of television a week had lower scores in school than those who watched less television or none at all.

Mr. Trelease gave the example of top child neurosurgeon Ben Carson whose life was turned around when his mother turned off the television and got him a library card.

"Ben and his brother were only allowed to watch three hours of television a week,'' he explained. "Their mother made them read two books a week and write book reports on them.'' However, Mr. Trelease dismissed the use of commercial phonics programmes such as Hooked on Phonics.

He explained that children did not enjoy the programmes and this would hinder children's reading skills rather than enhance them.

"Reading Hooked on Phonics is like reading the phone book looking for a plot,'' he said. "There are no stories -- only sentences.'' Mr. Trelease's interest in reading aloud stemmed from his father reading to him when he was a child.

He noted that when he grew up he wanted to have the same experience with his children.

"I did not know what reading aloud did for (reading) interest, vocabulary, or attention spans until my children got older and I could see the bond reading aloud created between parent and child,'' he said.

Mr. Trelease, who was a journalist for 20 years, said as he travelled around the US talking to students about journalism, he noticed a lack of interest in reading among children.

"I noticed that kids were reading less and less except for those kids who had teachers who read aloud,'' he recalled. "Those kids read up a storm.'' So Mr. Trelease did some research and found a connection between reading aloud and children wanting to read for themselves.

And in 1979 he published his book "The Read-Aloud Handbook'' which gives information about reading aloud, and a list of 14,000 titles that children love.

WORDS OF WISDOM -- Jim Trelease signs a copy of his book "The Read Aloud Handbook'' for Alice Carr who attended his workshop at Sonesta Beach Hotel.