Often, when our kids finish a new book, our first question is "Did you like it?"  or "Was it a good book?"

And our kids either answer "yep" or "nope" and that's it. We call it a day. 

But I'm a firm believer in nudging our kids with questions that get them thinking—questions that require more than a simple "yes" or "no" answer. Books are a great way to open the door to conversation with our kids, and often as parents we don't capitalize on them quite enough. 

So instead of asking our children the age-old questions about their books, let's mix it up a bit.  Let's really get crazy and ask them something different. 

Who knows where it could go. . . 

Here are five questions to ask your child the next time he or she finishes a book: 

1.If you could give the book another title, what would it be? 

2.Which characters would you like to meet in real life? 

3.What do you wish was different about the ending?

4.Would the book make a cool movie? Video game? TV show? 

5.What is one thing you could ask the author if you could talk to him or her?

And just for kicks, asking something like, 

• What do you think the author wants readers to remember most from this book?  Or . . . 
• Was there one big lesson you took away from this book?

Any way that we can get kids thinking in new ways about their reading is worth our time.