Guest blogger Jen Robinson is a children’s literacy advocate who blogs at Jen Robinson’s Book Page . Her goal is to help parents, teachers, and librarians to encourage children to grow up loving books. To that end, she publishes book reviews and literacy news, as well as a weekly email newsletter dedicated to Growing Bookworms. Today, she discusses one of the tangible benefits that she gained from reading.

I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. And I was very, very lucky, because I got to attend the college of my dreams (Duke University). I had support from my parents and teachers along the way, and generous financial support from the university once I got there, and for that support I’m very grateful.

But here’s the thing. I am certain that I wouldn’t have gotten into Duke if I hadn’t loved to read. I wasn’t much of a joiner in high school. I have no athletic, dramatic, or musical ability. I was the kid who sat around reading books all day.

This sitting around reading does not directly look good on college applications. (What are you going to include? Pictures of yourself sitting in a tree reading a book?) However, I had a high score on my SATs, especially the verbal section. And I simply have to think that my verbal SAT score, and even my math SAT score, owe themselves to the hundreds upon hundreds of books that I had read up to that point. I remember reading Dickens in junior high school. I remember reading Joseph Conrad and Shakespeare in high school. Not to mention Madeleine L’Engle and L. M. Montgomery and Jane Austen, and ever so many other authors. And every one of those books was there with me, in one way or another, when I sat down to take that test. I know that there are studies to support the link between reading and academic performance (try The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease for examples), but here I’m giving a personal, specific example.

Of course getting into college is different today than it was in the 80’s - you can’t rely on just SAT scores, you increasingly need to be well-rounded. I also know that there are issues with the fairness of SAT scores, and that some schools are moving away from them. I’m sure that this is a good thing - we should be rewarding the many different ways that kids are remarkable. But still, reading and writing abilities affect the opportunities available to kids, however you choose to measure them.

That’s why I’m telling you what reading books accomplished for me. I didn’t read those books because, as a six-year-old or a fifteen-year-old, I thought that they were “good for me.” I read those books because I LOVED them, couldn’t possibly be without them, would have found a fifteen minute car ride an eternity if I didn’t have a book for company. I believe that those books rewarded my affection by helping me get into into my dream college. No, of course that’s not everyone’s goal. And yes, there are plenty of other benefits that people gain from reading books. I just thought that a few parents out there might find this tiny little case study of interest. If you do, consider it one of the many reasons to be fostering a love of books in your children. Thanks for listening.

You can find a longer version of this article here.