The Wonder of a Read-Aloud Book

Excerpted from the May issue of Wonderwise

The Wonder of a Read-Aloud Book

Cuddling up for a good read is one of the most special times in the lives of a parent and child Yet, as our children grow as readers, and become more independent in their reading, it becomes easier and easier for us to give up our read-alouds. But, we mustn’t. If there is one single thing that we can do to continue to help our children grow as readers and learners (even when they are already reading Chaucer’s Tales independently) it is continuing to read aloud.

The poet Julius Lester says, “literature is a way to link our souls like pearls on a string, bringing us together in a shared and luminous humanity.”
What better way to use literature to "link our souls" than through the family read aloud.

WHY READ ALOUD?
Reading aloud is perhaps the single most important thing we can do to help create proficient and avid readers who devour their books and really enter the world created for them on the page.
Reading aloud:
• helps our children know what it is to lose themselves in the drama of a story
• develops a positive attitude toward books as a source of pleasure and information
• increases vocabulary
• expands the child's knowledge base
• satisfies and heightens curiosity
• stimulates imagination
• stimulates understanding of language patterns
• sharpens observation skills
• enhances listening skills
• promotes self-confidence and self-esteem
• offers many new friends since book characters can become quite real
• helps develop problem solving skills and critical thinking
• encourages positive social interaction
• helps them to become successful readers who love books and learning!

So how can we “link our souls” to help along all these wondrous happenings? Reading aloud can happen in many ways, at many times, for many different purposes.

*Take a few moments in the morning to read a shared few lines of poetry. Lay in bed in the morning with the same chapter book you fell asleep reading together the night before. Use it as a point of connection as you begin your day.

*Revisit books that your kids have loved or even just kind of liked in the past. Find new magic in them together. Let the stories be re-experienced and see what comes up. Revisiting books again and again can offer your readers new ways to look at a story they already know. They will see new richness in the piece when given the opportunity to hear it time and again, and may grow to have a deeper understanding of messages that lie within the text.

*Support your child’s interests by reading aloud non-fiction books about what really lights your kids’ fires. Start with simple texts that introduce the subject they are interested in and move to more complex text. By starting simple, you will poise your children to learn more so that they can get more out of the more complex texts. Once you do move to the more complex texts (often being something they wouldn’t be able to comfortably tackle on their own) you will help them increase their vocabulary and their understanding.

*And lastly, MODEL! MODEL! MODEL! Model engagement in text and love of literature. ‘Go there’ with your kids as you are reading. It can be the single most important habit we help them develop in their reading. And may even help you re-learn how to really get into a book yourself

Need some ideas for your next read aloud? Here's a small list to get you started:

POETRY:
Read Aloud Poems for Young People, An Introduction to the Magic and Excitement of Poetry Edited by Glorya Hale
Where the Sidewalk Ends; and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Talking to the Sun: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems for Young People, by Kate Farrel and Kenneth Koch

FOLK TALES, FABLES AND SHORT STORIES:
Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Yiddish Folk tales)
The People Could Fly, American Black Folktales told by Virginia Hamilton
The Juniper Tree and other Tales from Grimm translated by Segal, Lore
Even A Little is Something (Short Stories from Thailand) by Tom Glass
A Little Bookroom by Eleanor Farjeon
The D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths retold by Ingri and Edgar D'Aulaire.
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
Aesop’s Fables

CHAPTER BOOKS/SHORT NOVELS
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
Elmer and the Dragons by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Dragons of Blueland by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Flat Stanley (Series) by Jeff Brown
Mr. Putter and Tabby
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
The Magician’s Boy by Susan Cooper
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes
The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik

LONGER NOVELS WITH MORE MATURE THEMES AND LANGUAGE
Taking Flight by Vicki Van Meter (Memoir of a 12 year old girl who piloted a plane over the Atlantic)
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Cricket in Times Square by E.B. White
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
The Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray Williams
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Soup and Me by Robert Newton Peck
The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Dream Stealer by Gregory Maguire
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konisburg
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
The Bat Poet by Randall Jarrell
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Because of Winn Dixie By Kate DiCamillo
The Tale of Desperaux. By Kate DiCamillo (My son has now had two mice named Desperaux- We LOVE this book, but beware of some intensity in storyline)
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews Edwards
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain
Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain by Robert Burch
Eragon by Christopher Paolini (who wrote it when he was 15!)
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

PICTURE BOOKS TO SHARE AS READ ALOUDS THAT EVEN OLDER KIDS LOVE
The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater
Thundercake by Patricia Polacco (Anything by Patricia Polacco makes a great read aloud for older kids)
Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor
I’m in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor
The Empty Pot By Demi
The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau
Raven by Gerald McDermott (and a series of other trickster tales beautifully told and illustrated by Gerald McDermott)
King Arthur series written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott
O'Sullivan Stew written and illustrated by Hudson Talbott


So, if I can, I would like to leave you with this, written by Strickland W. Gillian from the poem The Reading Mother:

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold,
Richer than I you can never be-
I had a mother who read to me.

So grab your choice and make read aloud time special again. Turn off the lights. Get that cozy lamp going. Flop on pillows in the living room or curl up in bed together. And don’t forget to try to do it every day. Even as your children become older and seemingly don’t need you for that bedtime story anymore, revive your read alouds. They can, once again, be the most special time of your day.