RAR #155: Your Questions… and Library’s Most Wanted

Sarah Mackenzie (00:00):

You’re listening to the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast. I’m your host, Sarah Mackenzie, homeschooling mama of six, and author of The Read-Aloud Family and Teaching From Rest. As parents, we’re overwhelmed with a lot to do. It feels like every child needs something different. The good news is you are the best person to help your kids learn and grow, and home is the best place to fall in love with books. This podcast has been downloaded seven million times in over 160 countries. So, if you want to nurture warm relationships while also raising kids who love to read, you’re in good company.

 

(00:45):

We’ll help your kids fall in love with books, and we’ll help you fall in love with homeschooling. Let’s get started. Hello, hello. Welcome to episode 155. If you’ve been with us a while at Read-Aloud Revival, then you know we have a spot on our website at readaloudrevival.com, where you can submit questions to be answered on the show. And boy, you all have some excellent questions. For the next couple of episodes, I’m going to answer as many of those questions as possible here on the show because I know some of you have been waiting a while. I’m sorry for the wait. I usually answer one question at the top of each episode, but today, I’m going to tackle a bunch of them.

 

(01:35):

Many of these are questions we get quite a lot here at Read-Aloud Revival, so I think taking some time to consider them on the show is going to be worthwhile. If you want a timestamp of which questions I’m answering at which part of the show, hop over to the show notes because we’ve got timestamps for the whole episode. Those are at readaloudrevival.com/155. After I’ve answered five or six questions, I’ve invited my friend Carolyn Leiloglou to come talk to us about her new picture book, Library’s Most Wanted. And then, as always, we’ll wrap up our show by hearing from 10 of your kids on the books they’re loving lately.

 

(02:16):

Again, show notes for today’s episode are at readaloudrevival.com/155. All right, you ready? Let’s hear our first question.

 

Kim (02:25):

Hi, Sarah. This is Kim from Colorado. My kids love to read books, which is a good thing, but I feel like whenever we try to do any sort of challenge activity, it becomes a battle, and I don’t really understand why. I printed out like a summer reading challenge last summer, made it a week or two into that and then she hated it. I did a reading advent calendar and we didn’t make it very into that, and she hated it. I just don’t really understand why when I’m giving her a reward for reading, it becomes a battle, and if you had any suggestions of how I could keep these fun things being fun. Thank you.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (03:04):

Hey, Kim. Great question. I wanted to answer this one now because a lot of us are considering summer reading challenges, and you might be as well this summer. Here’s what I think we need to remember when it comes to incentivizing reading. It can be precarious business. The goal behind most incentivized programs is to get kids who aren’t reading to start a habit of reading. If your daughter already enjoys reading, the likelihood that she’s going to gain from any incentivization program, like a challenge or a summer reading program, is actually pretty low.

 

(03:41):

And there is some pretty compelling research that shows that motivating reading with prizes or rewards actually creates a negative link in our kids’ minds around that desired behavior. For example, if we give kids prizes for reading a certain number of books, then we decrease the likelihood that they will enjoy reading for pleasure because instead we are training them to read books for prizes. That’s the last thing we want for our kids in reading, right? We do a January Read-Aloud Challenge around here, which you know because you’ve participated in it before.

 

(04:14):

And with that challenge, we’re really focused on connection and helping kids read-aloud to each other as an act of love. That’s why we highly recommend with that program that all rewards be time with you, time and attention from parents. Not pizza or frozen yogurt or a material prize of any kind, but time and attention with their family. But at any time, no matter what the challenge is, no matter what the desired behavior, if a challenge to increase desired behavior becomes a roadblock, we need to rethink it, right?

 

(04:46):

If your child loves reading and doing a challenge is a roadblock to your child loving reading or enjoying reading as much as normal, or if it becomes a roadblock to ease in your family relationships, I will be the first to tell you to ditch it. I guess it kind of goes back to thinking about our goal. Our goal is to launch our kids into their adult lives as avid readers, as humans who love to read. And if a challenge isn’t getting you closer to that goal, it’s not worthwhile. There’s nothing wrong with your daughter is what I’m saying.

 

(05:19):

If I think about it, I don’t want anyone to incentivize me to eat chocolate because that will absolutely ruin my chocolate-eating experience. The same can be said for reading. I would just skip the challenges and “fun programs” for now and just let your daughter enjoy books for the books themselves.

 

Kylee (05:46):

Hi, Sarah. My name is Kylee, and first of all, I wanted to thank you and your team for all that you guys are doing at the Read-Aloud Revival. I’ve received a lot of encouragement and guidance from your podcasts and from your book lists. So thank you very much. Now, on to my question. I have a six-year-old boy who’s reading very well. However, he really wants to jump to chapter books, and we do value picture books very much, but he has that drive to want to increase his endurance with reading. But once he jumps into that higher volume of words, his retention and comprehension dramatically drop.

 

(06:28):

So I’m calling to ask if you have any steps or ideas for how to cross that chasm to longer books while still maintaining comprehension and retention along the way?

 

Sarah Mackenzie (06:41):

Hey, good to hear from you, Kylee, and that’s a great question. I think this is really common for comprehension to drop when a child is making any kind of big leap in their academic skills. There’s something you can do to help, I think, though. You can help his retention and his comprehension a bit during this transition period. You can give him the longer books he wants, and then also get an audiobook version of that same book and have him listen to the audiobook narrator following along with his eyes in the pages of the physical book.

 

(07:15):

I mean, you could also do this, reading aloud to him instead of an audiobook if you have the time. But if you don’t, I don’t think you need to worry about it. An audiobook can help you with this. But listening to a narrator read the book while he’s looking at it with his eyes, looking at those same words with his eyes, will give him practice keeping up with longer narrative, hearing it pronounced correctly with the right language patterns and cadence and rhythm, and will increase his comprehension as he’s making this leap.

 

(07:44):

I bet it won’t take very long doing this practice of listening and reading at the same time before you’ll see his comprehension catch up to his decoding skills, and what I mean by that is his understanding of what he’s reading will begin to level up with his eyes reading the words on the page ability. In fact, this is the advice I tend to give whenever someone asks me how to help their child increase their reading comprehension because it’s a very effective practice. Listening to somebody who is skilled at reading aloud read while you’re looking at the words they’re reading aloud will increase their comprehension so painlessly, it will feel delightful.

 

(08:26):

You don’t need to do it with all of his reading, of course. Just with some things. So you might want to, say, for 15 minutes a day or for half an hour, depending on how much… What’s his attention span. I wouldn’t do it for longer than is enjoyable. So even 10 minutes, if that’s what a good amount of time for him. Doing this 10 or 15 minutes a day for a little while, I bet you’ll see an improvement. A child who’s been read to a lot, in particular, is going to see a big link between the words they read with their eyes and what they’re reading on their own with the language patterns coming in through their ear that are so familiar to them because they’ve been read to a lot or they’ve heard a lot of audiobooks.

 

(09:05):

So I think this is a simple activity that might connect those two experiences for him and make this just a less painful leap.

 

Heather (09:31):

Hi, Sarah. My name is Heather Fike, and I have three kids. My oldest son is almost six, my middle son is three-and-a-half, and my daughter is seven months. We love to read to all of our kids, but I was wondering if you could give me some recommendations on easy chapter books that we can read aloud to my oldest son and our younger son? Thank you.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (09:59):

Yeah, I sure can, Heather. Some short chapter books that I think read aloud really well with younger kids, the Heartwood Hotel series by Kallie George. It starts with a book called A True Home. I just discovered these not too long ago, and I have to tell you, I am in love with them. They’re about Mona the Mouse. Mona’s a mouse who’s lost her family and her home was washed out in a storm. And when the first book opens, she’s lost in the woods and stumbles across a great, big tree that turns out to be a bustling hotel for woodland creatures. I adore everything about these. They make fantastic read-alouds.

 

(10:44):

Chapter books, I will say, you know those first chapter books that are younger than middle grade novels, but over picture books as far as who the publisher’s targeting for them. Especially those first chapter books that are the ones your kids are going to be listening to first as read-alouds or reading on their own first, They can be a little tricky to read-aloud. Sometimes they don’t read-aloud as well as others. Sometimes the language and syntax isn’t awesome for those because they’re trying to give kids a stepping stone for their own reading comprehension and their reading growth, but these books have got it all.

 

(11:16):

They are delightful short chapters, super engaging plot, lovely characters that you just fall in love with, and they read-aloud wonderfully. They also have illustrations on a lot of the pages. So it’s perfect for this transition time you’re talking about, where you’re looking for your first chapter books to start reading, your first novels to start reading aloud to your really young kids. My littles all love these. Heartwood Hotel by Kallie George books. I also really like the books by Torben Kuhlmann, and these books fit the bill, I think, for longer picture books or shorter, more highly illustrated novels.

 

(11:54):

These books are mouse adventures. Wow, I’m going to talk about mice today, I guess. These are mouse adventures. They’re lavishly illustrated, and I mean that in every sense of the word of lavishly. They’re gorgeous, beautiful rich colors, big spreads because this isn’t going to hold in your hand like a chapter book size. It’s going to hold in your hold the trim size, or the rectangular size of a picture book, but the length of a chapter book. Edison is the adventure of a mouse going into the ocean, Armstrong is the mouse adventure going to the moon, and Lindbergh is a mouse story of a mouse in flight.

 

(12:35):

They’re a lot of fun. They’re extremely well done. And then one last recommendation for now, My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. This is actually a trilogy, the first one is My Father’s Dragon, and then the second one is Elmer and the Dragon, and the third one is The Dragons of Blue Land. These are very, very often the very first chapter books that I will read-aloud to kids who are just getting chapter books for the first time, who are adding chapter books and novels to their repertoire alongside picture books.

 

(13:06):

I know you said your kids love picture books, and you know I’m going to tell you, “Don’t stop reading picture books to your kids.” But when you start adding even more stories, My Father’s Dragon trilogy by Ruth Stiles Gannett, they’re excellent choice. You will find links to all of these books, of course, in the show notes. That’s at readaloudrevival.com/155. So don’t worry, if you missed those titles, just go to the show notes to grab them.

 

Lauren (13:42):

Hi, Sarah. This is Lauren from Minnesota. I was just wondering, so here in Minnesota, the weather is getting nice and it’s beautiful out. And I have three littles boys who are six, four, and two, and I’m homeschooling my oldest for kindergarten. And I was just wondering, as the weather gets nicer, how do you balance read-aloud time with outside play time? Especially in here in Minnesota, winter just gets long, and so when it’s nice out, I just want to give the boys all the time to play outside.

 

(14:14):

And so I was wondering how do you prioritize read-aloud time during the warmer weather months, and then what do you think is a good reasonable amount of time for reading aloud in the summer months? Thanks so much. Bye.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (14:28):

Yes, me too. I think it’s useful to think of our lives in seasons. That’s what God gave us after all, right? I think don’t worry if you read-aloud less in the summer, or maybe someone else listening to this actually read-alouds more in the summer. We all have different schedules and habits and family dynamics, right? Just embrace this as part of summer. That said, I do think there are a few ways to make reading aloud still have a prime place in your schedule while letting your kids spend a lot of time outside, because you’re certainly not going to hear from me to cut down on their outside time. No way. But we can accomplish some more reading aloud if we get a little creative.

 

(15:08):

So if we want to do that, to that end, I was kind of thinking of a few ideas that could help, and I think we want to think about which of these feels the easiest to you, and that might be a good place to start. One idea is to read-aloud at breakfast. If you need to, you could use an audiobook for this so that you could refill juice cups and clean up cereal spills and open the yogurt while you’re drinking your coffee. If you reading aloud doesn’t sound that appealing at breakfast, you could use an audiobook for it.

 

(15:39):

But doing it at breakfast means you’ll feel like you got the most important thing in first, which I know for me is a great feeling and sort of a great strategy in general. Another time of day it might work is if… I don’t know how hot it gets in Minnesota, but if it gets really hot during any part of the day, making that hottest part your 30 minute read-aloud time inside, a break indoors or under a shady tree, or whatever. You could make this enticing by having a snack or a Popsicle or something like that, but just putting it in on your schedule.

 

(16:15):

And even setting a reminder on your phone, maybe 10 or 15 minutes ahead of time, so you get a reminder on your phone that says, “Prep the kids for read-aloud time,” and you can kind of give all the kids a warning, “Hey, in 15 minutes, we’re going to take a read-aloud break. Meet me under the tree, or meet in the kitchen for a Popsicle,” right? Whatever you want to do with it. But putting a reminder on your phone will mean you don’t forget because summer days kind of slip away. They’re a slippery fish. They just sort of get away from us, right? So putting a reminder on your phone will help. Giving your kids a warning that says like 10 or 15 minutes.

 

(16:51):

Because then if they’re in the middle of some engaging play outside, it gives them a little time to prepare, to put that down for a little bit and come read-aloud with you. It will feel less jarring. Another good time of day during the summer is bedtime. I will be completely honest and say, I am not a huge fan of reading aloud at bedtime because I am stinking tired by that time of day. So I like to read-aloud earlier in the day if I can. But if we’ve missed it for any reason, then I don’t skip it at bedtime.

 

(17:19):

I do like to use audiobooks at the end of the day because I will enjoy working on a puzzle or sketching or folding that last pile of laundry or whatever while they’re listening to an audiobook right before bedtime, and we just do it all together. That’s another way to do it, but just extending that bedtime reading or just making sure you don’t skip it on a day when you didn’t get it in either at breakfast or maybe in an afternoon read-aloud. I think, though, all said and done, in my house, we read-aloud less in the summer than we do during the school year, and I’m okay with that. Don’t be too hard on yourself. To everything, there is a season.

 

Laura (17:57):

Hi, Sarah. My name is Laura, and I have a six-year-old, four-year-old, and one-year-old. And we started The Land of Stories series. We started listening to it because of a friend who recommended it, and my oldest is just in love with fairytales. She loves them completely. She loved Ella Enchanted and The Blue Fairy Book and The Red Fairy Book, but we started Land of Stories per her recommendation. But as we went through the series, I felt like my children were being exposed to things that I didn’t want them exposed to at a very young age. So I’m looking for a series that is also an adventure series that is also engaging and has hopefully the fairytale element to it as well.

 

(18:55):

If you could just recommend something that is within the fairytale realm, I would highly appreciate it, and I know my little readers and listeners would love to be engaged in a new book series. Thank you so much.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (19:11):

Yeah. Laura, you are certainly not alone with this concern. Okay. So first, my best recommendation is probably to find books by Jessica Day George. I think these will give your kids that fairytale adventure story kind of experience without rubbing up against the issues you’re not sure they’re ready for. I especially recommend the series that begins with Tuesdays at the Castle. They’re a lot of fun, and I bet your kids will enjoy them. She also has a trilogy. I think it’s called The Dragon Slippers Trilogy. You probably are going to be in good shape with most anything by Jessica Day George. So check her out.

 

(19:54):

There are also books by E.D. Baker that my daughter, who really loved fairytale, fantasy, adventure type stories, liked. The Wide-Awake Princess, Unlocking the Spell, Dragon’s Breath, they’re fairytale-based, but again, they don’t approach those same issues you’re finding in the series that you mentioned in your question. She’s got a few different series you can check out, I believe. And then I wonder if your kids have read the Half Magic series by Edward Eager. I love these books. They’re among my favorites. There’s a bunch of them, I think seven or eight, but they all start with Half Magic, which is a delight, about a bunch of kids who find a magical…

 

(20:36):

Well, I can’t remember if it’s like a talisman or a coin, but it basically grants wishes by half, which, as you can imagine, produces all kinds of problems for the kids who have to sort them out. They’re not fairytale tellings, but they have a similar adventure/fairytale-esque tone. Before we move onto the next question though, I do want to mention, this is something that just happens when our kids are readers. They encounter topics and issues, world views maybe, that we might wish they hadn’t been exposed to yet, or maybe we don’t think they were quite ready to encounter yet.

 

(21:10):

But I really do think that encountering these issues in books where you can talk through them and discuss them with your kids can really be a great gateway of sorts, a way to have hard conversations or conversations about hard topics with our kids in a relatively safe way. I did a podcast episode on this. We called it reading messy books about hard topics. It was episode 85. And even if you aren’t necessarily choosing to read a book about a messy topic or with a sticky issue, I think that episode might help you decide what to do and how to handle it when your kids read something you wish they hadn’t because that’s going to happen to 100% of us at one point or another.

 

(21:53):

Deciding how you’re going to use that situation to step into that parenting moment, I think it’s a useful thing to consider. That’s readaloudrevival.com/85, and we’ll put a link to that in the show notes as well, or you can just find episode 85 in your podcast app. Thank you for that question, Laura. I hope those book recommendations will help you. They’ll be in the show notes of this episode at readaloudrevival.com/155.

 

Christine (22:27):

Hi, Sarah. This is Christine from Illinois. I have five boys ages 11, nine, almost seven, four, and two, and they all love books, both reading them themselves and listening to them. But my oldest boys are starting to love reading their own books more than listening to my read-aloud books. And I’m just wondering when you know it’s time to start reading the bigger kids their own book and reading the little kids their own book separately as opposed to grouping everyone together. And then a second question is how in the world is there time for that? Thanks so much. Bye.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (23:16):

How in the world indeed. Mostly I think this sort of naturally happens when you are having trouble finding a book that is of interest to both groups. I also just really quickly want to mention, it is super normal for your kids once they are avid, voracious readers to enjoy reading to themselves more than to enjoy being read to. They can get through books faster than you can read them. We read with our eyes faster than we read with our ears, so that’s normal. Just don’t let the read-alouds go away entirely. My kids prefer to read on their own. I know, my older kids.

 

(23:49):

If you gave them the choice, they would probably read something with their eyes because they would get to read it faster and find out what happens, but we still read-aloud all the time because there’s so much goodness that comes from that. Okay, so I have six kids, three who are teens, 18, 16, 14, and three who are littles, eight, six and six, and I read to them separately in two separate groups because… I would say 90% of the time I read to them in two separate groups mostly because the same books that are engaging to my teens are just not going to be appropriate for the little kids, or they’re not even be able to keep up with it, or the younger kids…

 

(24:27):

Same thing for both. They’re in different stages of life. Occasionally we do find books that are a great fit for both ages, Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, those all come to mind for me right away. But for the most part, I actually read to them separately, although I don’t read-aloud to both groups every day because at least in my house there isn’t time every single day for that. So let’s think through a few strategies and see if you can figure out which one of these might be easiest for you. One idea is to read…

 

(25:03):

You’re reading one book aloud to one group, either the olders or the youngers, while the other ones are listening to an audiobook. While you’re reading let’s just say The Mouse and the Motorcycle to your littles, your bigs are listening to a big kid book on audiobook. And then when they finished it, you can switch to reading aloud to your older kids and having your younger kids listening to an audiobook. I don’t mean all in the same day. I just mean when you finish a book, you can kind of swap, so you’re always reading aloud one book to one group or the other. And then with your younger ones, you could always do picture books because those are short wins, easy wins, right?

 

(25:39):

And a lot of times that is what reading aloud looks like at my house where with the older kids I’m reading a novel and about every other day, a little more often than that, I will sit and read to them for 20 minutes or a half an hour from our read-aloud novel, but I’m reading a picture book at 3:00 every single day to my little kids. I’m thinking that through and thinking if you were going to swap which group of kids you’re reading to each day.

 

(26:01):

You just have a time set aside for reading aloud each day, whatever time is your read-aloud time, and then toggle back and forth between which group you read to, or you can read to one set, either your littles or your bigs in the morning, and the other one at bedtime. That might make a lot of sense if you’ve got little kids to read to them before bedtime and your big kids you can read to them as part of their school day. If your older kids are up to it, they can read-aloud to the littles. That’s good for both them and your younger kids. I usually have my big kids do 15 minutes of reading aloud to the younger kids as part of their school work. Not all the time, but often.

 

(26:36):

And if they are reading for 10 or 15 minutes aloud to the little kids, then the little kids are getting read to even if I’m not doing the actual reading, right? I just keep thinking in my head that audiobooks are going to help you out here. We do a lot of reading at our house through our ear, through audiobooks, while we’re folding laundry or big kids are doing chores or maybe we’re sitting relaxing doing a puzzle or the littles kids are drawing. But it makes it easier for us to get more to read-alouds without me having to be the one who does all the reading alouds.

 

(27:07):

So I think your biggest key here is to realize that your kids can get some read-alouds in, that language through the ear that’s so important for them, without you having to be the one that’s doing all of the reading. So how can you help them get more read-alouds without you having to do all the reading? I think audiobooks and having your big kids reading to your little kids are probably going to be two strategies that help a lot with that. Phew! Like I said, really great questions. I’ve got another handful that I’ll be answering on the next episode of the show in two weeks.

 

(27:47):

But right now I want to share with you a little snippet from a conversation I recently had with my friend Carolyn Leiloglou. Carolyn has been on the show before. She was my guest for episode 41 on Navigating Fantasy: A Guide for Christian Parents. She’s also an author of children’s books. She’s written chapter books about Noah Green: Junior Zookeeper, and her first picture book just released. It’s called Library’s Most Wanted, and I invited her to tell us a little about that. Okay. So Carolyn, your new book, Library’s Most Wanted, is about a girl who aspires to be a great librarian.

 

(28:29):

Only someone who truly loves libraries could make their hero a girl who wants to be a librarian. So tell us a bit about where your library love comes from and why you chose to make your main a character a girl who admires her librarian aunt.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (28:44):

I do love libraries. We homeschool, so we pretty much had a regular library day since the kids were little, although what that has looked like has varied throughout the years. But surprisingly, it wasn’t really until I had kids of my own that I became a regular library user. So when I was a kid, my mom was more likely to take my brother and I to a bookstore and let us choose a book to keep, which was also great.

 

(29:07):

But actually since I didn’t go to the library much as a kid, and I was a very shy kid, I kind of grew up with that cultural stereotype of the librarian as this 70-year-old woman and the wire rimmed spectacles and the tight band shushing everyone, and someone who’s there to make sure everyone follows the rules. When I first started taking my kids to the library, I kind of felt like that librarian might be out to get me. What if my kid was too loud, or what if we accidentally damaged a book, or will I get in trouble if I check out books from the book display? Is that even allowed? I didn’t know.

 

(29:42):

My main character Libby starts out with a lot of those insecurities I had as a kid and a young mom about the library. She loves books, and she wants to be a great librarian like her aunt, but she knows there’s rules and she thinks, “Aha! Being a librarian is about making sure everyone follows those rules.”

 

Sarah Mackenzie (30:00):

I think we all have that experience, even if the… People who are in our libraries are very, very kind, and we’re there with our young children, and they make a loud noise and we think, “I’m going to get kicked out of this place.”

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (30:12):

I’ve definitely felt that way.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (30:14):

I worked at a library for a while, and I loved it. It was so much fun. And my close friends would aways take a second when I would say I worked at the library because they were trying to I think pair my personality with their image of the quiet… It didn’t work.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (30:33):

I can’t imagine you shushing anyone.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (30:36):

I was shushed a few times myself. Libby wants… I love this about your book. She starts out wanting to protect books, but then she ends up realizing that librarians have a more important job than protecting the books. So let’s talk about that.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (30:53):

Yeah, that’s right. When Aunt Nora makes Libby the deputy librarian for the day, Libby takes it very seriously. And it really chops her high when she feels like kids are mistreating books, even though most of it is really just kids being kids. Libby hangs wanted posters with drawings of the other kids and their library crimes so that they’ll leave, and it works. Only later she realizes protecting the books wasn’t her job at all. A librarian’s real job isn’t corralling the books, but rounding up readers. But when I was writing the story, it came to me that there was actually a deeper message beyond libraries being more about readers than books.

 

(31:30):

It’s not an in your face message at all, but I think the heart of the story I wanted to tell is that people are more important than things. And it seems really basic, but sometimes it can be easy for us to fall into a pattern of acting like that isn’t true. That’s what I hope really sticks with kids in their hearts long after they’ve read the book.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (31:49):

Well, I think a lot of us are missing our libraries a lot right now. Depending on when you’re listening to this episode and where you live in the world, you may or may not have access to your library. I know that just as of this week, the week that we’re recording this, not the week it’s being released, I was hearing some friends or some people in RAR Premium in our forum talk about how their libraries were opening up pick up only. You could put your holds online, and then you could go in and they have like a contact-less pick up system, which I thought, oh my gosh, I hope all libraries do this if they need to to get back up and running because we all miss our library so much.

 

(32:31):

I thought maybe we could chat a little bit about what libraries bring to our world even beyond books, especially because this book feels to me like a love letter to libraries.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (32:42):

Sure. One of the reasons that libraries are so important especially now when so many people have lost their jobs due to this virus is that libraries are for everyone, and that’s why we’re missing them so bad. They’re this great equalization. And it doesn’t matter who you are. The library is for you. I came across this interesting quote recently that a truly great library has something in it to offend everyone, which I just kind of thought was hilarious.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (33:09):

That’s actually quite true too if you really get thinking.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (33:12):

But the reason it’s true is because the library has something for everyone.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (33:18):

Yeah.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (33:18):

But you’re so right when you say that libraries bring a lot to us beyond even books. I don’t know if any of your listeners are like I was when I first became a library user, but I used to be a little frustrated by all the extra stuff in the library. I mean, I’m here for the books. Why are there computers in the children’s section? Our library currently has tons of nonbook items and activities, or when it was open. Ours is still not open. They’ve got a rotating themed play area. They’ve had a playhouse and a puppet theater. They have Lego club, art exhibits, and Harry Potter day, and the list goes on.

 

(33:54):

And there’s really multiple reasons that all this stuff is such an important part of the library’s mission, but there’s one really important reason I think all your listeners can get onboard with. With the exception of the computers, and those are there fore equality, like I mentioned before, the common thread I see in all these things is imagination. Without imagination, our kids won’t be able to love reading stories, and they need imagination to sustain that mental theater constructed of words and characters. It’s what makes reading magical. And imagination is a skill that has to be developed.

 

(34:28):

We don’t always think of it that way. I think it used to be a little easier for kids to develop imagination naturally. But with screens and our busy lives, it can be a little harder. They can get in the way of that. Now I really love it when I see our library has a new play experience available. My little girls don’t want to leave because it’s building them into readers.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (34:50):

Well, and then it kind of pairs those imaginative experiences or creative experiences, whether it’s play structure or with Legos or with puppets or a coloring table, our library has one of those, it pairs those pleasant, creative, relaxing experiences in an environment that is filled with books and stories in a place where people are, like you said, feeding their imaginations in a lot of different ways. I love that. I hadn’t actually ever thought of how imagination is the sort of golden thread that weaves through all those different parts of a library.

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (35:24):

Yeah. Obviously I’ve been thinking about libraries a lot recently.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (35:28):

Can you tell everyone where to get your book and how they can connect with you more?

 

Carolyn Leiloglou (35:33):

Absolutely. Library’s Most Wanted is available at all the usual places you’d buy books online. But if people want a signed copy, they can order from my local bookstore, The Twig, and their copy will come with an autograph bookplate. And then as far as where to find me, I realized Leiloglou can be intimidating to spell, so people can pretty much find me anywhere as House full of Bookworms, and there’s a link from my blog, House full of Bookworms, to my author site where I have resources for parents, teachers, and librarians, as well as the link for people to purchase from The Twig if they’re interested in that signed copy.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (36:10):

Now it’s time for Let the Kids Speak. I love this part of the podcast because kids share the books that they’ve been loving lately.

 

Jason (36:27):

My name is Jason, and I am five years old. I live in Idaho, and one of my favorite books is Nancy Clancy because it talks about adventure and mystery, which I like.

 

Satam (36:39):

My name is Satam. I am two years old. My favorite book is Llama Llama.

 

Speaker 1 (36:43):

Llama Llama.

 

Satam (36:43):

Because I like to say it.

 

Speaker 1 (36:43):

By myself.

 

Satam (36:54):

I like to say it by myself.

 

Grace (36:59):

My name is Grace. I’m six years old. I live in Peru. My favorite book is the Magic Tree House. My favorite part is the dinosaurs.

 

Lily (37:16):

Hi, my name is Lily. I live in Ohio, and I’m 11 years old. I recently finished reading Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier. I like this book because it has historical fiction and fantasy, which are two of my favorite genres. It takes place in Victorian London and is about a girl’s adventure as a chimney sweep.

 

Catherine (37:37):

Hello, my name is Catherine. I am five. I live in Alabama. My favorite book is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson. I like it because there’s a dragon in it.

 

May-May (37:57):

Hi, my name is May-May. I am eight years, and I live in Alabama. One of my favorite books is Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. One of my favorite parts in the book is when Wilbur has not one spider, and now he has three. Another one of my favorite parts is when at the beginning they all think Wilbur is such a famous [inaudible 00:38:27] Bye.

 

Speaker 1 (38:28):

What’s your name?

 

Leanne (38:29):

This is dad.

 

Speaker 1 (38:32):

What’s your name?

 

Leanne (38:33):

Leanne.

 

Speaker 1 (38:34):

How old are you?

 

Leanne (38:36):

Two.

 

Speaker 1 (38:36):

Where do you live?

 

Leanne (38:38):

Alabama.

 

Speaker 1 (38:39):

What’s your favorite book?

 

Leanne (38:43):

[inaudible 00:38:43]

 

Speaker 1 (38:45):

Baby’s First Book of Birds and Colors by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes.

 

Leanne (38:51):

[inaudible 00:38:51]

 

Speaker 1 (38:53):

What do you like about the book? What’s your favorite bird?

 

Leanne (38:57):

Yellow.

 

Speaker 1 (38:58):

Yellow.

 

Helen (39:00):

Hi, my name’s Helen. I’m 10 years old and live in Alabama. One of my favorite stories is by Chris Colfer. It’s the first Land of Stories, The Wishing Spell. One of my favorite parts in this book is when Alex and Connor, a sister and brother, find out that their dad and grandmother are from The Land of Stories. Bye.

 

Evie (39:25):

Hi. My name is Evie, and I’m 10 years old. I live in Stanton, Virginia. My favorite book is The Twenty-One Balloons because it’s adventurous and funny. My favorite part of the book is when Professor Sherman lands on an island called Krakatoa in a hot air balloon.

 

Ethan (39:41):

Hi, my name is Ethan. I live in Stanton, Virginia, and I’m seven years old, and my favorite books is The Titanic: Lost and Found. It was written by Judy Donnelly and illustrated by Keith Kohler, and I like it because it was a true story and the illustrations are good.

 

Sarah Mackenzie (40:02):

Thank you, kids. I love hearing your recommendations. Hey, if your kids want to leave a message to be on the show, or if you would like to submit a question of your own for me to answer on an upcoming episode of the podcast, you can do both of those things at readaloudrevival.com. Just go there and then scroll down just a bit and you’ll see a couple of recording buttons, one for kids and one where you could submit a question for me to answer. All the books and resources we mentioned today will be in the show notes, readaloudrevival.com/155, and we’ll be back in two weeks.

 

(40:39):

I’ve got another handful of questions to answer for you, and we’ve got good stuff right around the bend here at Read-Aloud Revival. As always, we are grateful to have you with us. Until next time, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.