RAR #156: Answering Your Q’s About Audiobooks for Kids

Sarah (00:08):

You’re listening to the Read-Aloud Revival podcast. I’m your host, Sarah McKinsey, homeschooling mom of six and author of The Read Aloud Family and Teaching From Rest.

 

(00:18):

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 7 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. We’ll help your kids fall in love with books, and we’ll help you fall in love with homeschooling. Let’s get started.

 

(00:59):

Hello, hello. Welcome to episode 156. Just like in the last episode, I’m going to be tackling several listener questions today. I usually answer a question at the top of each episode here at Read-Aloud Revival, but today I’m going to answer a bunch of them. Most of today’s questions are related to audio books, one of my favorite topics. If you want a timestamp map of which questions I’m asking so you can hop right to that part of the podcast, go to the show notes. Those are at readaloudrevival.com/156.

 

(01:37):

Now, we’ve made a few changes and updates to our summer calendar at Read-Aloud Revival Premium, and I want to make sure you know about those. RAR Premium, of course, is the best of what we do here at Read-Aloud Revival. It’s where you’ll find master classes, family book clubs, writing workshops, community. It all helps your kids fall in love with books and helps you fall in love with homeschooling.

 

(02:01):

Let me tell you about a couple of fun summer updates. First, heads up for all of my Susan Meisner fans. You may or may not know that Susan Meisner is definitely in my own to be top list of favorite authors of adult fiction. I love her books. I love reading them. In RAR Premium, we’re going to be reading Secrets of a Charmed Life for our summer mama book club, and Susan Meisner herself will come to spend an evening with us online in Zoom. So that’s going to be fun.

 

(02:34):

If you’re going to be homeschooling in the coming year, you definitely want to get in on our Circle With Sarah sessions that are happening all summer long. We are deep diving into teaching from rest, a few key practices that are going to help us teach from rest in the coming year. These are based on my book Teaching From Rest, a home schoolers guide to unshakeable peace, and basically, each month we’re going to do a master class of sorts that will help us make this upcoming year a restful, productive, rich, growing kind of year, the kind of homeschool year that you really want to have, and we want to help you become the kind of homeschooling mama you really want to be. Those Circles With Sarah happen every first Friday. Of course, they’re recorded. So if you miss any, you’ll have access to those replays in Premium. And in fact, when you join RAR Premium, you have instant access to all of the Circles With Sarah we’ve done so far.

 

(03:32):

In June’s Circle With Sarah, we’re going to be developing a rule of six. Whether this is a new concept to you or not, it’s a great time to think through your vision for your homeschool. What are you really trying to do here? We do that in this circle, and we’re going to get super clear on what matters most to your family so that you can make better decisions about what the upcoming school year should look like.

 

(03:56):

In July, we’re going to talk about using curriculum as a tool. And this really helps us teach from rest because curriculum is our servant, not our master. And when we’re able to really understand what it means to teach the child and not teach the book, we find a lot of breathing room and enjoy a lot of juicy learning in our homeschools.

 

(04:20):

In August, we’re going to simplify to teach from rest. We’ll talk about practical ways to use your rule of six to determine what should get prime place in your homeschool schedule, and then, we’ll also discuss ways to do less and learn more so you can teach this upcoming school year with joy, delight, rest. So good. We’ll be in good shape for the new school year after a summer like that. It’s all happening in RAR Premium. To get details and to join us, go to rarpremium.com.

 

(04:53):

Okay, now let’s listen to our first listener question for today.

 

Larissa (04:58):

Hello, Sarah. My name is Larissa. I live in California. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am to you for sharing your enthusiasm, passion, and love for reading. I am not personally an avid reader, and it is one of the things I most wish was different about myself. However, since having children and discovering your podcast and books, my vision for the culture I desire to create in our family has been completely turned upside down for the better. I have learned so much from you and still have so much more to learn, but now, I’m excited to do so. I have exposed my family to so many fabulous authors via your recommendations. We also love audio books. After having listened to several audio books, I have found that there are decent narrators, and then, there are fabulous narrators, much like with authors. I also feel like our exposure to a particular narrator can determine our affection or distaste toward a particular book. How do you determine which narrator to choose? Thank you again for all that you have done for me, my family, and countless others. Please keep up your amazing work.

 

Sarah (06:10):

Larissa, I am not going to lie. Your message made my day. Thank you so much for leaving it.

 

(06:16):

Okay. This is a great question, and I agree. A fantastic narrator makes all the difference between a decent audio book and an exquisite audio book and also a terrible one. I won’t tell you the name of the narrator. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I will tell you that I recently tried to listen to an audio book with my younger kids, and the main character actually sounded like a villain because of the way the narrator chose to make that character’s voice. And it was terrible. We had to quit after the first chapter. I just decided to read that book allowed myself instead. So a narrator is of Supreme importance when you’re listening to audio books. And I agree. I think it can make or break a book for your kids who are really listening to a lot of audio books.

 

(07:00):

And remember that audio books count every bit as much as reading. We did a whole episode on why audio books count as reading. It’s just reading with your ear rather than reading with your eyes. And we’ll put a link to that episode in the show notes so you can listen to if you’re interested.

 

(07:14):

Okay. So I listen to most of my audio books in one of two ways. One is that I borrow them from our library. Our library has the OverDrive app and also the Libby app, and I use either of those apps to listen to books from the library. That’s always my first stop, to see if they have it at the library, and they have samples on there. So I will listen to the sample for a moment. I think you can tell a lot from a 30 second sample of an audio book. I think you can tell pretty quickly whether the narrator is going to be engaging. And there’s nothing in particular you want to listen for so much as just do you want to keep listening? This is going to be a personal taste thing.

 

(07:54):

I do this as well with Audible. I’m a subscriber, but I also buy books one off without my subscription, just getting the deals themselves. I’ll tell you about that in a second, but I use the sample feature there, as well. And I just listened to about 30 seconds and ask myself, “Do I want to keep listening? Do my kids want to keep listening?” If the answer is yes, then you’ll be very likely in good hands, not a hundred percent of the time, but very good chance that you’re going to enjoy that narrator. And over time, as you’re kind of looking at the names of the narrators that you’re choosing, I bet you’ll come up with your own list of favorites, your own list of, “Oh, yeah. That narrator is almost always excellent. So I’m going to get that audio book.”

 

(08:35):

Now, there are a few narrators who just do so well they’ve become my own favorites. Jim Dale, Katherine Kellgren, Cherry Jones, Hugh Bonneville, Stephen Fry. Those all come to mind right away from me. A lot of actors and actresses are narrators, and they’re really good. Meryl Streep does a lot of children’s books. Morgan Freeman, Glenn Close, Jack Nicholson. You know these names, right? They do a lot of audio books for kids, and they’re so good at it. We’ll put this little list that I just rattled off in the show notes.

 

(09:06):

I really think the best tip here is just to listen to samples and ask yourself, “Do I want to keep listening,” or ask your kids, “do you want to keep listening?” Because if a voice is going to grade on you or a certain reading narrative style is going to drive you crazy, you can usually tell within the first couple of seconds. It doesn’t actually take that long to figure it out. And then start to pay attention as you’re listening to audio books and you think, “Man, I love this reader. I love this narrator.” Take a second to look at your phone to find out what the name is. And over time, I bet you’ll notice some names popping up over and over again, and you’ll know that those books are just going to be really good listening experiences because they’re in the hands of an excellent narrator.

 

(09:49):

Now, we’re going to include several of our own favorite audio books in the show notes of this episode, readaloudrevival.com/156. It’s not going to be an exhaustive list, but it’ll be a darn good start to some good audio books that your kids will likely enjoy by some of our favorite narrators. So we’ll make a list for you. Again, that’s in the show notes to this episode. Keep in mind, you don’t need an Audible subscription to get those.

 

(10:16):

First of all, check your library and see if you can download any of them through the library for free, and then, we actually do keep a list of our favorite Audible deals on the website. You’ll find it at readaloudrevival.com/audibledeals. You just buy the audio books one off on Amazon, and then you listen to them on the free Audible app. If you have any more questions on how do I use Audible without a subscription? How do I get good deals on Audible books? Go to readaloudrevival.com/audible because I answer lots of questions there about using Audible to build up your audio book library on the cheap. Again, that’s a great resource and so is your library. So be sure to check your library and see what they have available there, as well.

 

Libby (11:19):

Hi, my name is Libby. I live in Dallas, Texas. My question is related to my seven year old son who is not yet a very fluent reader himself and isn’t very interested in learning to read but is a voracious consumer of audio books and loves to be read to for hours a day. No joke. I’m just wondering if by providing him with all of this endless access to every literary experience through read alouds, am I taking away his drive and the motive for him to really put in the hard work to learn to be a masterful reader himself?

 

Sarah (12:07):

Hey, Libby. Okay, so first you are not holding him back. Consider that when your son is listening to an audio book, he’s simply reading from a different modality. He’s reading with his ears instead of reading with his eyes. Now, reading with your eyes is an important skill, right? But reading with the ear has some distinct advantages. One of those advantages is that grammatically correct and sophisticated language patterns are stored better in the brain when they come in through the ear than when they come in through the eyes. That’s because each word comes in order. No skipping like happens with all of us. When we’re reading with our eyes. We’re skipping all of those small connector words.

 

(12:47):

So you are literally filling your child’s mind and heart with beautiful language. When he’s listening to those hours and hours of audio books. If your seven year old loves audio books, then he loves stories, and there is no greater impetus or motivation for him to want to be a reader then to love stories. So right now, at the age of seven, listening to a story is much more satisfying because his listening ability and his listening comprehension are well above his reading ability and reading comprehension. And for kids who love really good books, there is just no story satisfaction in an early reader type book, right? For a child who’s been fed on really good stories through read alouds and audio books, there’s just no comparison.

 

(13:30):

So what you’re doing actually is you are continuing to feed and nurture his love of good stories through these audio books and read alouds, and you’re not rushing his eyes to catch up, but he will catch up. At some point in his life, it will become easier to read with his eyes than to read with his ears. And when he becomes a fluent reader with his eyes, whether that’s this year at the age of seven or when he’s eight or nine or 10, it doesn’t really matter, when you’re not holding him back by filling his mind with grammatically correct and sophisticated language patterns.

 

(14:05):

In fact, chances are very good that when his reading with his eyes ability gets past a decoding stage, when it’s not so difficult, when it’s easy, he’ll be able to read higher level books than he would have otherwise because he’ll have had all of these grammatically correct, sophisticated language patterns coming in through the ear. Think about the cadence of a read aloud. When someone’s reading aloud an audio book, they’re intoning their voice in such a way, the cadence, the rhythm, the way the dialogue sounds, the musicality of the language, it’s all of that work is done by the narrator for the child. All of that’s getting stored in your son’s brain. So then, when his decoding ability catches up and at some point it will, you’re giving him a distinct advantage because it will be second nature for him to know how that sentence should sound or how that paragraph should flow. Right? So it’s all going in the brain.

 

(15:01):

And so, no, I don’t think you’re holding him back. In fact, I think the opposite is probably true. Now, if you weren’t giving him read alouds to this degree, would he become more motivated to read with his eyes earlier? Maybe. Maybe not. Because for most kids who are struggling to read and they’re not getting a lot of read alouds and audio books, I would dare say they’re not super motivated to read for themselves because they don’t have that love of story. So, maybe he would, but maybe he wouldn’t. And there’s no real advantage to a child reading at the age of seven versus learning to read easily when they’re nine. So no, I don’t think you’re holding him back. I would keep reading aloud and keep letting him listen to as many audio books as he wants, even his school assignments.

 

(15:49):

And then also while you’re doing that, keep working on those phonics and learning to read skills. Just do those in short lessons so they’re not overwrought or long and drawn out. Ten or 15 minutes a day, on school days, is what I do with my own kids, who are six and eight when they’re learning to read. Right now, I’ve got twins who are six, and Claire is eight, and they’re all at various stages of learning to read easily. And we do phonics lessons for about 10 or 15 minutes a day. And that’s separate from the read alouds and the audio books and the love of story. And then eventually, when it’s your child’s time to learn to read easily, when he gets it, it’s going to become easy and you will have facilitated his ability to keep loving books and loving stories as much as he loves listening to them now.

 

(16:36):

So I think it’s a tremendous gift. I don’t think you’re holding him back. If you suspect that your son is possibly dyslexic or having trouble learning to read because of a learning disability, there’s no harm in getting him assessed for that to find out if there’s something you can do to help him. But otherwise, I would, for sure, … So even if your child is dyslexic, I would say don’t reduce the amount of read alouds that he’s getting. I don’t think it’s holding him back. I think it’s going to be a big boon to him in the future, and it’s probably a great joy to his heart even now.

 

Allison (17:19):

My name is Allison. I’m from Denver. I have a question about introducing stories in audio book form to my younger kids. My oldest is six, and she’s just learning to read. And so she’s been practicing reading with beginner level reading books at home, but she enjoys much more in depth and complicated stories during our read aloud time. Well, she has started listening to audio books on her own through CD player and has been sucked into stories like the Penderwicks, Matilda, Anne of Green Gables, and A Christmas Carol. I’m struggling with if these stories are too advanced for her, though she genuinely does seem to enjoy them, and I want her to have something to read in book form when she gets older and can dive into chapter books.

 

(18:02):

So my question is this, what are your thoughts on introducing stories from a higher reading bracket to younger kids, specifically in audio book form, if they love and engage with the stories, but don’t read the words themselves, but instead, just listen to the stories. Do you recommend that parents hold off on introducing these works until kids are a bit older or maybe until we can read them aloud together? I’m honestly worried if we’re introducing some of these beautiful stories to her now that she’ll run out of amazing books to curl up with when she’s 12.

 

Sarah (18:37):

Hey, Allison, here’s the thing about the best books. The first time is never the best time through. I did a whole episode on the beauty and effectiveness of rereading. It’s episode 141. If you missed it, go give that one a listen.

 

(18:53):

If your child listens to, let’s say, The Wonderful Wizard Oz before she’s able to read it with her eyes, chances are very good that she’s going to want to read it for herself once she can or that she will very much enjoy you reading it aloud to her, even though she’s already familiar with the story. It doesn’t take anything away from the experience.

 

(19:15):

The first time we read a story we’re reading for plot. We’re reading to find out what happens. The next time we read a story, we read on a whole different level. We’re still excited to revisit the plot, but we’re able to catch little nuances that the characters have, little plays of language, foreshadowing, different literary devices. The whole experience just takes on a different dimension when our prime question is not what happens next.

 

(19:40):

So in most cases, I would say, don’t feel like you need to save books so that they can be read with your eyes or read aloud together. You can still do that later. Actually, when it comes to storing grammatically correct and sophisticated language patterns in your child’s brain an audio book or read aloud is actually better than reading with your eyes. So in that case, when it comes to classics, like you mentioned, Anne of Green Gables and Heidi, those books are going to be excellent as audio books first because all of that really good grammatically correct, sophisticated language is going into your child’s brain. They’re getting familiar with the stories. They’re making friends with the characters. They’re going to revisit later on and have a very deep, rich experience.

 

(20:23):

I think it all boils down to just kind of paying attention to your child because there’s no benefit to having your child listen to an audio book above their level if they’re not following, they’re not engaging, they’re not interested, right? If you turn on Heidi and your child loves it, then let them listen to Heidi. It certainly doesn’t mean that she can’t read it or won’t want to read it later on. Actually, in my house, I would say the opposite been true more often that because we listened to it … and same thing is true for movies, in fact. Because we watch the movie, now, my kids want to read the book. Because they listen to the audio book, they want to read it for themselves. And then when she’s ready to read it on her own, Heidi’s going to feel like an old friend and that’s the best kind of reading.

 

(21:06):

But if you turn on Heidi and your child’s lost, confused, bored, disengaged, turn it off and just choose something else because there’s no inherent benefit to your child listening to an audio book that’s above their level if they’re not following along at all. It would be better for your child to fall in love with stories by listening to an audio book they can follow along with. But that’s not what you’re talking about here, I don’t think, Allison, because you’re talking about how your child really loves to listen to these books.

 

(21:33):

So I just say, watch her response. And then you can kind of scale up or down as necessary. Keeping in mind that our goal is to raise kids who see books and stories as one of life’s sweetest delights and you’re surely doing that in the example you gave me. You mentioned, Allison, that your daughter loves and engages with the stories she’s listening to on audio, and I think that’s your green light, sister. I wouldn’t hold back. I wouldn’t worry that she’s not going to want to read these later. I bet you could still read them aloud later or she can read them on her own later, as well.

 

Callie (22:10):

Hi, Sarah. My name is Callie Mitchell and I’m in Jerusalem, Israel. My question is about how to handle books that are part of a series or have a sequel. I have four kids. My oldest is a son, who is 10 years old, and then, I have daughters, who are three and five and I have a five month old baby boy. And when we’re doing our read alouds, I always feel conflicted after we finish a book about whether I should go on to the next one in the series or if I should skip around and find a different genre just to keep them all engaged. And sometimes they even ask for the next one, and I may have had a different idea in mind. So I was wondering if you could talk about this a little bit. Maybe there’s some books that you would recommend continuing on in a series or some that you think might be better if they’re spaced out a little bit, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this and your ideas and suggestions. Thank you.

 

Sarah (23:14):

Hey, Callie. Okay, so I really think you want to follow your kids’ delight and your own delight, as well, your interest level and their interest level. I can’t exactly tell you what you should do. I don’t think there’s a should here, but I can tell you what I do in my own house. Personally, when it comes to my own reading, not reading aloud, aside from my kids, just reading on my own, I don’t read a lot of series. I just get a bit fidgety staying with the same characters for too long. I like my reading life to be switched up. So even if I am reading through a series, I will often space out, read several books in between each of the series books, if that makes any sense.

 

(23:52):

That said. I’m kind of the same with read loads. I get a little bored if I read one after another in a series, even a really, really good series. So what I tend to do is I tend to read aloud the first book in a series, and then if the kids want to keep going with it, I will oftentimes tell them they can either read the rest on their own or we’ll listen to them as audio books or I will say, “We’re going to read the next one in this series after we read a different book” because my interest level is pretty important. We’re going to talk about that in just a second.

 

(24:24):

I will say, though, if you love series and you want to keep going, I don’t think there’s any harm just reading through the whole thing, right? What a tremendous gift for your kids to remember the year we read the Chronicles of Narnia or the year we read everything Ramona Quimby, right, or whatever book. I think it really comes down to the fact that we need to stay engaged in our reading aloud. We do and so do our kids. There are already so many things on our to do list. It’s really easy for me to set reading aloud aside to get to other things that need to be done, the dishes, the laundry, the errands, the million things we need to do for school or for dinner or all the different things. So I sort of feel like you need to be loving whatever you’re reading aloud to make sure that you’re inspired and motivated to carve time out for it and because your kids can tell if you don’t enjoy a book or if you’re getting kind of bored.

 

(25:14):

So if you’re into series and you want to keep going and your kids want to keep going, I’d say, go for it. If you’re not or if any of your kids are getting kind of bored, their attention is flagging by staying with this series, I think sending off the kids that want to read the rest of the series with the audio books or to read independently, if they’re able, that’s a great way to do it, and then, you can switch up to something different.

 

(25:36):

I almost never read a whole series one book after another, after another, after another, I almost always, even if I’m going to read them all out loud, will change it up and read something else in between. If I’ve got a kid who’s just dying to know what’s happening in the next book of the series, I will often let them read ahead or listen to it on audio book and then they’ll listen to it when I’m reading it aloud to everybody too. So there’s no hard and fast rules here. Remembering that rereading is your friends. So if your kids end up wanting to listen to the whole audio book series or read them all themselves and you want to read them aloud later, I think that’s totally fine. Let them listen or read ahead. Tell them they can’t give any spoilers out to anybody else. And then you can still read them aloud later. Does that make sense? You’ve got a lot of freedom here. I would pay attention to your energy level, your interest level with the series, and also to the energy and interest level of your kids.

 

Jessica (26:44):

Hi, Sarah. My name is Jessica Grimes and I’m calling in from Dallas, Texas. And I have a question regarding we do an hour of quiet time in our home in the afternoons. And I have an eight year old son who has been listening to the series from The Incorrigible Children. He’s probably listened to each of the books. There’s six or seven books. He’s probably listened to each of them two or three times. And they’re great books so I have no problem with him listening to them.

 

(27:13):

However, there are times where I would like to capitalize on that hour of quiet time and maybe have him listen to something that perhaps is part of our history or a different read aloud or something that we’re trying to kind of get in, maybe I wasn’t able to get in because we also have a baby in the house. I struggle with if I should do that or not. Part of me thinks, “Gosh, he enjoys these books. I want him to enjoy the time. Let’s let him listen to them as much as he wants.” But then part of it is like, “I could really use him being able to use that time to say, listen to 50 Famous Stories Retold or some of the chapters from Story of the World.” So any insight would be much appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

Sarah (27:56):

Hmm. That’s a good question. I wonder if you could do something like split it halvesies. So you’ve got your quiet reading hour in the middle of the day. What if you assigned something for him to read, like you had said, as part of your history study or whatever, either to read or listen to an audio book for the first half and then the second half he can listen to anything he wants. That might be a good compromise.

 

(28:22):

I don’t think I would replace all of the free reading time with listening or reading assignments because there’s really nothing so powerful to help your child become a reader for life as to fall in love with the regular habit of free, voluntary reading, reading what he wants in his free time for the pleasure of it.

 

(28:40):

I talked about this in episode 153, about the incredible importance of free, voluntary reading in any reader’s life. And you know this already because you mentioned that you love that he looks forward to these books so much and your son has excellent taste by the way. Those Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place audio books are so, so, so well done.

 

(29:01):

In episode 153, I talk about how most of our kids’ reading should be free, voluntary reading, not coming from a book list, not coming from assignments from school. In fact, our kids should do most of their reading outside of school and not as part of school, and it sounds like your son’s really into reading anyway. For all of our listeners, that’s episode 153, if you missed it and it’s worth a listen, I think.

 

(29:25):

That said, I think a lot of us have trouble getting all the schoolwork done in a day. You mentioned you have a baby. That adds a whole nother element of difficult to getting everything done in a homeschool day. So I think splitting it halvesies could be a great compromise. You saying, “Okay, for the first half, they’re going to listen or read to this assignment, and in the second half, you get to listen to read to whatever you want.” That could be a really good way to sort of keep that love of reading that your son’s already got while also getting in a little bit more of the reading work that you need to have done for school. I hope that’s helpful.

 

Speaker 5 (29:58):

I’m a relatively new fan and just devoured the read aloud family. My question is, how can I forge ahead creating a book culture at home when my husband is not a reader? He understands many of the benefits of reading, however, also feels that reading may not be the most effective way to learn or become familiar with the story compared to other ways, say watching a movie or another multimedia avenue. We have young kids, and I feel like I am embarking on a constant battle to keep a healthy diet of reading alongside any technology that he may feel inclined to introduce to our boys. Do you have any tips for me?

 

Sarah (30:46):

I think it’s safe to say that of all the families I’ve talked to and met all over the country, in my work here at Read-Aloud Revival, you are in darn good company.

 

(30:59):

I’ll tell you my husband’s not a big reader either, and I think trying to force or coerce a husband to read more because you want your kids to see him reading and you want a whole family book club culture, it just doesn’t always bode well for your relationship. None of us likes to be improved like a project by our spouse, right, especially if you accidentally send the message that your husband’s disappointing to you in any way because of him not being an avid reader. Whether your husband is an avid reader or not doesn’t really bear on whether you are modeling reading every day. So whether your kids see you reading for pleasure, whether your reading aloud frequently to your kids, whether your carving out time and space for your kids to fall in love with books.

 

(31:44):

One practical thing to do is just to make your days, maybe when your husband’s at work or the time that you’re spending with your kids, make it pretty bookish. Read aloud lots. Play a lot of audio books. Have a quiet reading time during the day. And then you don’t have to worry so much if it’s more about movies later on because you know they’ve gotten the best stuff first.

 

(32:03):

Movies, by the way, are just stories in a different modality. So if your child is falling in love with movies, that’s a good sign for their ability to fall in love with books because movies and books, they’re based on the same essential stuff of storytelling, and then they’re delivered in a different modality, in a different way. And some of us love books way more. We’re the kind of people that say, “The movie is never as good as the book.” Oh, that’s not entirely true. There are a few exceptions, even for those of us who think that way. And others would go, “I would never read a book if I could just watch the movie.” But really this essential stuff of storytelling is there in both.

 

(32:41):

So while I think it’s incredibly wonderful for our kids to see their dads reading and loving books and Jim Trelease has done some research and talks about this in The Read-Aloud Handbook, the importance of dad’s reading. I think the harmony and goodwill in your relationship probably is more important than turning your husband into a reader. So I think if you’re listening to this and you think, “We both are big readers, my husband and I,” that’s a tremendous gift being given to your kids. But if you’re listening to this, any of you listeners, and your spouse isn’t much of a reader, then I’m sure they offer their own beautiful and unique gifts to your family in a unique way. You then get to be the parent who inspires a love of reading. Lucky, lucky you.

 

(33:31):

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.

 

Allie (33:48):

My name is Allie. I live in Conway, Arkansas. My favorite books are The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My name is Allie Petty. I live in Conway, Arkansas. I’m five years old. My favorite books are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

 

Ham (34:17):

My name is [Ham 00:34:18]. I’m four. I’m from Conway, Arkansas. I like Kevin Hankins’ books.

 

Lyla (34:28):

My name is Lyla. I’m five years old, and I live from Beaumont, California. My favorite book is Comets Nine Lives and like about it-

 

Speaker 11 (34:43):

Who’s it by?

 

Lyla (34:44):

It’s by Jan Brett and I like about it that he lost his life and that his kitty found it.

 

Angela (34:54):

My name is Angela. I’m seven years old. I live in Beaumont, California. My favorite book is the Narnia series, and I like about it that Shasta was walking by Asland and he said, “I was the only lion.”

 

Justice (35:09):

My name is Justice and I am eight years old and I live in Beaumont, California and my favorite book is Taran Wanderer. It is from the Chronicles of Prydain and the author is Lloyd Alexander. And my favorite part is when Taran kills an evil wizard. And my favorite character is Taran.

 

Lyla (35:32):

Hi, my name is Lyla and I’m five years old. My favorite book is The Book with No Pictures. Why I like it is because it’s funny and I live in Warhead.. We’re in Minnesota.

 

Speaker 15 (35:45):

What’s your name?

 

Lochs (35:47):

[Lochs 00:00:35:48].

 

Speaker 15 (35:49):

And where do you live?

 

Lochs (35:51):

Clifford in Canada.

 

Speaker 15 (35:54):

How old are you?

 

Lochs (35:55):

Five.

 

Speaker 15 (35:56):

And what is your favorite book?

 

Lochs (35:59):

Pigeons.

 

Speaker 15 (35:59):

The Pigeon books by Mo Willems?

 

Lochs (36:01):

Yes.

 

Speaker 15 (36:02):

What’s your name?

 

Caitlin (36:03):

Caitlin.

 

Speaker 15 (36:05):

And how old are you?

 

Caitlin (36:05):

Four.

 

Speaker 15 (36:05):

Where are you from?

 

Caitlin (36:05):

Canada?

 

Speaker 15 (36:12):

Yep, you’re from Canada. And what is your favorite book?

 

Caitlin (36:17):

The Twelve Dances Princesses.

 

Speaker 15 (36:20):

The Dancing Princesses? The Usborne one illustrated by Ana Luraschi.

 

Suan (36:25):

Hi, my name’s [Suan 00:36:26]. I’m five years old and my book is Look Inside Science. It’s my favorite because there’s science experiments and stuff. And also many pages about science, all kinds of stuff. Space. All kinds of stuff.

 

Max (36:47):

My name [inaudible 00:36:50].

 

Speaker 20 (36:47):

No, it’s not. What’s your name?

 

Max (36:54):

Max.

 

Speaker 20 (36:55):

Max. How old are you?

 

Max (36:55):

Three.

 

Speaker 20 (36:59):

Three. And, Max, what’s your favorite book?

 

Max (37:03):

Duck on a Bike.

 

Speaker 20 (37:03):

Duck on a Bike by David Shannon.

 

Max (37:04):

By David Shannon.

 

Speaker 20 (37:07):

And where do we live?

 

Max (37:11):

Wyoming state.

 

Speaker 20 (37:12):

Wyoming state. Why do you like Duck on a Bike?

 

Max (37:17):

They ride bikes.

 

Speaker 20 (37:22):

Because they ride bikes. Okay. Thanks, Max.

 

Max (37:22):

And they wash their hands with soap. [inaudible 00:37:26].

 

Speaker 20 (37:28):

Okay.

 

Sarah (37:31):

I don’t know what I enjoy more, your kids talking about books or you mamas giggling as you help your kids leave their messages and also soap and water is so very important, right now, isn’t it, Max? If you want your kids to be featured on the podcast, go to readaloudrevival.com. Scroll to the bottom of the page, where you can leave me a voice message. Mamas and Papas. You can leave me a question, if you want me to answer it on an upcoming podcast. Kids, you can tell me what books you’ve been loving lately, read alouds or read alones. Doesn’t matter. We just love to hear about the books that you love. I’ll be back in two weeks with another episode. In the meantime, you know what to do, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.