reading with children

Mama’s Corner: What Makes a Book Stick?

Recently I noticed an interesting trend in the books that my children request me to read over and over again: bad.

Yes, my children enjoy bad books.

At first I thought that they had just inherited their father’s taste in literature, but then I realized that it had a little to do with me, too.  Whenever I happen to bring home a bad book from the library, I cringe the first time I read it.  With awkward rhyme, uninspiring illustrations, terrible (or no) story line, each page is worse than the last.  After I get over the initial urge to toss it into the return pile, I try to find something redeeming about it.  It was published after all, so someone must have found something worthwhile in it.

I think: Can I add voices?  Can I add sound effects?  Can I act it out?  Can I sing it?

I’ll try one or the other, occasionally all four, but somewhere along the way, something magical happens and my kids fall in love with the delivery.

The book sticks.

Our most recent example was originally a song by Ziggy Marley (Bob Marley’s son) that was then turned into a picture book: I Love You, Too.  It was pretty terrible at first read, but when I sang it to Luke and Brynn, they loved it.  I made up my own melody, but there’s no reason that one couldn’t listen to the song online or use an existing melody.

There is also something beautiful about singing a song with the refrain of “I love you, too.”  We all tell our children that we love them, but it has been amazing to have those words sung in bits and pieces all day long, week after week.  They became the soundtrack to our December, January, and February.

That “bad book” gave me an excellent excuse to cuddle with my kids and share my love for reading and music with them, and in my book, that’s pretty good.

 

 

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To My Son on Mother’s Day: A (Bookish) Love Note

Dear Luke,

Until I started teaching, my relationship with reading was almost an entirely selfish one.  When I began sharing literature with my students, reading became two dimensional: analyzing a text with others and sharing my passion for a piece added an undeniable richness to the experience. Since I started reading with you, however, the act of reading has achieved a third dimension that is absolutely intoxicating.  What is it about this third dimension that is so amazing?  Allow me to try to explain.

Before you, reading was all about absence.  Escape.  Removing myself from the “real” world and submerging myself in another.

After you, reading has become all about presence.  Being fully present in every moment of our reading time.  Reveling in your curiosity, your questions, your observations, your undeniable interest in letters, numbers, words, and stories.  Paradoxically, by immersing myself in our reading time, I achieve the same sense of escape from reality, but it is with you as my traveling companion.

Before you, reading was about being alone.  It was a solitary act.  Even when reading a novel with high school students, the students were expected to come to class having read a portion of text and then we would discuss it.  Usually, we did not read the text together.

After you, reading has become about being together.  With you, I have discovered the pleasure of sharing words and ideas much more viscerally.  In an immediate way that was never possible with students, except for an occasional close reading done in class, together you and I explore the nuances and details and questions and morals of your stories, each of us interacting closely with the other.

Before you, reading was primarily a self-investment.  It was about me.  Through critical thinking about ideas, close analysis of beautiful writing, and pure enjoyment of a well-told story, I could return to myself and reestablish my identity as a thinker and a student of the human experience.  (Reading by myself still plays this role, albeit on a much smaller scale…for now!)

After you, reading has become an investment in YOU.  An investment in your future.  I hope that you are soaking up a love for words, stories, and ideas; cultivating a passion for the act of learning, for knowledge, and for beauty; and developing the insatiable curiosity, the ability to make connections, and the thoughtfulness that will bring you both great personal satisfaction and serve you well as a citizen of the world.

Before you, Luke, I really enjoyed the act of reading because it was fun.

After you, I love reading because it helps me grow closer to you.

At the beginning of this letter, I wrote about how reading with you has opened up an intoxicating third dimension. Why so intoxicating? I think I’ve figured it out.  Reading with you is done with Love.

Love,

Mama

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Reading Tip: Hubba-whaa?!? Engaging Children in Books Using Inflection

In addition to adding sounds to our readings, the best thing about reading with my Mama and Dada is that they REALLY get into my books using their voices.  They emphasize important words by speaking louder, making their voices go up or down in pitch, or drawing out certain syllables.   In other words, they use tons of inflection.  Talk about EN-ter-TAIN-ing!

But reading with inflection isn’t just about entertainment: it also helps me to begin associating written letter combinations with their sounds (e.g. “ph” makes an “f” sound), to pronounce words, and to better understand the story.  I also learn an important strategy for decoding new words: sounding out words by segmenting them into syllables.  When my parents run their fingers under the words as they read, it helps me make all of these associations even more easily.  And now that my Mama and Dada have been reading with inflection for so long, I’ve started reading like that myself (which is totally entertaining for them!).

Using inflection is a part of every book that we read, but some authors go out of their way to make it very easy to do.  These books are always among my favorites, mostly because they are so fun to hear.  Here are a few to get you started.  Books are ordered from least to most complex, but I still enjoy even the simplest of them.

  What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas: If you’re new to the whole inflection thing, this book is a great one to start with.  The illustrations are simple and expressive, and the text is spare, very big, and deliberately constructed to emphasize certain words.  Oh yeah, the book is also hilarious.  A good book for practicing running your finger under the text, too.  Other Jan Thomas books work equally well (The Doghouse is another of my favorites), but this one was my first Jan Thomas book and remains my favorite.

  The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (Pigeon) by Mo Willems: Another fantastic book that is perfect for exaggerated readings.  Similar to What Will Fat Cat Sit On, the illustrations are simple, the text spare, and the type helps tell you how to read it with inflection.  It’s also pretty darn funny, as are all of Mo Willems’s books.  If this particular book doesn’t appeal to your child, try any of Willems’s books (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and the Elephant and Piggie books are other favorites of mine).

  The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street) (Little Golden Book) by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin: Another long-time favorite, Monster shares the same text elements as the first two books in this list: large font with emphasis built into the type to make it very easy to read with inflection.  As an added bonus, Grover talks to the reader, begging and pleading to not turn the page.  I love this book in part because it is interactive.

  Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great by Bob Shea: This book is geared toward a slightly older toddler (3-5).  The language is more advanced and the dialogue between the two characters, Goat and Unicorn, takes a few readings for a toddler to figure out.  (Tip: Mama adds in “Goat says…” and “then Unicorn says” to make the exchanges between characters a little easier to understand)  Once you figure out the dialogue, however, the book is really fun to read.  Emphasis on certain words is built into the text using color and size, and once you are comfortable with the personalities of the characters, this book is also a good one for adding your own inflection.  Ham it up!

  Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss:  Classic!  Definitely for an older toddler as it is fairly long, but so much fun to both read and listen to!  Unlike the other books on this list, there are very few text features to help parents figure out which words to emphasize.  Instead, I included it because it is the easiest non-explicit inflection book that I’ve encountered.  It just begs to be read with more and more frustration as the “guy with the tall hat” refuses to try the green eggs and ham that the persistent Sam offers him.

Some parents are naturally good at using inflection, and if that is you, then hopefully these books will simply give you something entertaining to read.  For other parents, reading with inflection does not come as easily, and if that is you, then I hope that these books will help you learn a little something that will help make reading even more fun for both you and your child.

Happy reading!

–Luke (blog co-star, age 2 and a half)

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