Reading Aloud: the Words Endure

Reading’s Delight

The other night I was clambering around amidst the book-boxes in our basement, and unearthed a book I’d been hunting for for some time: my old copy of Ray Bradbury’s classic, The Martian Chronicles. Having recently finished Walter Wangerin, Jr.’s The Book of the Dun Cow (and heard the author preach an awesome storytelling sermon at Luther Memorial Church!), we’d been casting around for what to read next. So I was happy to find the book, along with some other MIA classics: The Original Mother Goose, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish & Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss as well as (at Nicole’s request) Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle: New Understanding about Writing, Reading, and Learning.

I didn’t introduce the Bradbury’s book in any way, just called the middle-school age boys in and started reading (ignoring questions) while they found blankets to snuggle down in on the couch, and the preschool-age girls negotiated between snuggling with their brothers, tickling them, or “washing” the dishes in the sink,¹ while Mom joined in the monthly Homeschool Chat on Twitter.

January, 1999²

One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer’s ancient green lawns.

Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer…

~From The Martian Chronicles via RayBradbury.com

Bradbury’s words worked their magic — the boys were entranced through several long stories. Then we moved on to Dr. Suess and Mother Goose, because the girls needed their own stories, and were tired of playing elsewhere. They giggled, much to their Mom’s delight. But what made my heart swell (three sizes!) was the boys — they were engaged right along with their sisters, wanting to see Dr. Seuss’ pictures, commenting on his sense humor, answering Mother Goose riddles. They were reading with much more sophistication than their sisters, but they were engaged in the same practice of reading in community that the girls were just learning.

Reading’s Power

Just how important is this sort of thing? Larry Ferlazzo shared via Twitter a reading specialist’s response to the idea of academic study for preschool kids that explains:

The single best predictor of how a child will do over 12 years of school is:  How much s/he was read to prior to the first day of first grade. It’s that simple.

A lot of reading aloud means 20-40 minutes per day. It does not have to be 20 consecutive minutes, but can be 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there. Those who’ve been read to have working vocabularies of 40,000 words. They have heard over 3 million words….

…if we want to change America, we need to change how parents read to their children.

This reading requires two-way interaction–lots of talk. So the parents are pushing their children, and all they need to do is read aloud, with joy and talk. Doing this is like treasure and gold for a child’s life and with libraries, does not have to cost either.

It may not cost a huge amount of money, but that doesn’t mean that family reading is without cost:

Just as I purchased separate size clothing for the three, I would read separately to each of them and then together as well. Reading aloud, talking about books and going to the library was a major priority in our house.

My husband was a naval officer at the time, deployed at sea for nine months, six months at a time and I’d send him books and tapes so he could record readings, and the children could hear his voice and read and reread stories as well.

Establishing literacy in the family can sometimes take extraordinary effort, but it has far-reaching consequences for both individual kids and society as a whole. The book we just finished, Walter Wangerin’s Book of the Dun Cow depicts the epic battle of Chauntecleer, Rooster lord of his land, to contain the archetypal evil of Wrym, imprisoned by God under the earth. And a battle there is, which must be fought, and sacrifices which must be made. But ultimately, it’s not the warriors alone that keep evil from consuming Chautecleer’s well-ordered land, but the relationships among its inhabitants:

Simply, the animals were the Keepers. The watchers, the guards. They were the last protection against an almighty evil which, should it pass them, would burst bloody into the universe and smash into chaos and sorrow everything that had been made both orderly and good…The little against the large. The foolish set to protect all the universe against the wise!

…The wasted land, the shattered society, the bodies dead and festering, were all great Wyrm’s triumph. In one small part of the earth his Keepers had been weakened and then killed. Their lives, which locked his life beneath them in the earth; their banded peace, which chained him there; their goodly love, which was his torment; their righteousness, which was iron against his will — that fabric had in one place on earth been torn.

And it is that fabric of relationships which in the end allows Chauntecleer’s battle to be victorious, restoring order to his community once again. Our family’s evening reading together was no more — and no less — difficult than all the other things we do together as a family. Sometimes reading together turns out to be too difficult — schedules get squeezed, tempers fray, patience tears, and chaos pushes in. But other times the book is what draws us together.  Day in and day out, this practice of reading builds up a foundation and a bulwark that will strengthen and protect us throughout our lives. Day in & day out, we parents are building up our children, our schools, and our communities, guarding them from a multitude of evils, just by reading aloud. Then the joy & engagement of children strengthens us in our times of need. And what a joy, what a blessing it is!