Reading to your kids

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, March 2019; written by Rebecca Brown.

Spring break is almost here, and it’s a better-than-usual time to read aloud with your children.

Truth: It quells arguments between kids and it’s a sweet salve to boredom!

No kids? It’s still a splendid time to read aloud – grab a spouse or a friend. ALL ages benefit.

That’s exactly what Meghan Cox Curdon tells us in her new book “The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction.” She relates how a recent study shows nearly half of young children have electronic devices of some kind and they spend an average of 2.5 hours a day with noses pressed to screens. With many teens, Curdon said, that becomes 6.5 hours or more.

Senior citizens also experience tremendous benefit from listening to books that are read aloud. Curdon points to how it provides mental stimulus and important interaction since “modern life can be a lonely isolated affair.”

As the Outreach Librarian, one of the highlights of my week is reading aloud to the folks at Rendezvous Senior Day Services on Thursday mornings. We’re currently making our way through “The Borrowers,” by Mary Norton. The seniors listen intently; we are all wondering about Arrietty’s next shenanigans.

Some books are more charming to read aloud than others. Here are some of my family’s favorites for reading aloud with boys and girls who are elementary school age or older:

• “The Mysterious Benedict Society” by Trenton Lee Stewart opens up with the classified ad: “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” Dozens of children reply, but we follow the four craftiest who are selected for a nail-biting adventure that pits them against an impressive villain.

• “Masterminds” by Gordon Korman is awesomely action packed. It’s set in Serenity, New Mexico, which is a crime-free utopia. Eli Frieden comes to realize in short order that something much darker is happening, and it involves some of the greatest criminal masterminds to ever live. Readers are taken on a harrowing adventure that will have kids begging for one more chapter.

• “Redwall,” was Brian Jacques’ first novel in 1987, and it has a huge following to this day. If J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a book with talking animal characters, this might be it – there’s even the occasional long-winded song! The peaceful mice of Redwall Abby are forced to fight Cluny the Scourge and his sea rats. There are animals, battle scenes and a even tiny bit of love sprinkled in.

• For more mature elementary school kids, try reading aloud Neil Gaiman’s “The Graveyard Book.” It won a well-deserved Newbery award for its portrayal of Nobody Owens, or Bod, who is being raised by ghosts after his family is snuffed out. Now the killer is after him. I know: Grim stuff. But it actually led to us having my older daughter’s 11th birthday at the cemetery, and we continue to enjoy visits there from time to time.

All of these books are available for checkout at the Ketchikan Public Library or via the Alaska Digital Library. For her part, Curdon prefers hard copies vs. e-books: “You know that diversion is just a finger swipe away, and so does your child.”

However you do it, just read aloud – once you try it, you’ll be hooked!