When my first child was just a toddler, we had a small stack of children’s books in the toy room, and a decent supply of magazines and catalogues. At stoplights, people in cars next to us would smile and shake their heads when they spotted my daughter, then about 2 years old, sitting in her car seat and intently studying a toy catalogue.
Then everything changed — for the better. A few years later, I sneaked out of the office on my lunch break to go hear an out-of-town speaker, Jim Trelease, talk about Reading Aloud to Your Children. He wrote “The Read-Aloud Handbook,” all NINE editions of them. He described how the lives of children and teenagers were greatly enhanced when adults read to them out loud. He recommended keeping books everywhere around the house — in every room — and remarked that what kids are reading isn’t nearly as important as that they are reading.
Thus began a nightly ritual of reading aloud to my children. We read all kinds of books: “The Cat in the Hat,” “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” “Marley & Me,” “Anne of Green Gables.” During my daughter’s high school years, we read “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles. We even listened together to a book on tape — yes, tape -- of “The Old Man and the Sea.”
My children all came to love the library, and book fairs, and live theatre, which I consider a fine way to hear — and to see — stories being told out loud. I have fond memories of hearing stories together — sometimes holding back tears during the sad parts and sharing a laugh in the funny parts. Do yourself — and the children and teenagers in your life — a great service and read out loud to them. Your life, and theirs, will be all the richer.
I’m Susan Goldberg and that’s my Perspective.
