From: Sheila A Welch <sheilawelch>
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 15:05:28 -0500

Hello,

This topic is dear to my heart! My own memories include my mother's reading of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS to me before I started school. My father never read books to me, but I can recall sitting with him in a fuzzy, old, overstuffed chair as he read from the comics, mainly "Little Orphan Annie," which I found boring. But I loved the chance to have my dad to myself, so I pretended to listen attentively even though I didn't even especially like the style of the artwork. Which shows how children definitely get more than "story" out of a read-aloud session. I was in second grade and confined to my bed with rheumatic fever when a friend of the family gave me the newly published CHARLOTTE'S WEB. I started reading it on my own, but my mother soon became involved, and we finished it together. The following year, she returned to teaching and read that book each year to her fourth graders. The only teacher I recall ever reading aloud was my own fourth grade teacher. She read several of Kipling's tales, and the whole class was enthralled--even Dennis, who could be a true menace to a peaceful day at school.

My own experience with reading aloud CHARLOTTE'S WEB came when our two oldest children were five and three. During Charlotte's death scene, I was sobbing, and our five-year-old son was too, while the three-year-old was saying, "But she's just a spider!" I realized too late that I should have waited a few years to introduce her to this particular book. (She later became a champion of spiders and is now a YA librarian.)

Our oldest son was extremely energetic and would only sit still when I read to him. As a very small child, he adored: MR. GUMPY'S OUTING, by John Burningham; WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, by Sendak; SWIMMY by Leo Lionni; SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE, by William Steig. He loved the longer books with pictures such as Seuss's HORTON HEARS A WHO, THE KING'S STILTS, THE LORAX, and HORTON HATCHES AN EGG. Also, similar in length
(about 15 minutes to read aloud) are many of Bill Peet's marvelous tales. I've often wondered if Peet didn't get ignored somewhat by the children's literature world because of his long association with the Disney Studio. Some of our favorites include: THE WUMP WORLD, FAREWELL TO SHADY GLADE, and COWARDLY CLYDE.

Our all-time favorite read-aloud became the classic WINNIE-THE-POOH and A.A. Milne's sequel, THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER. Our adult daughter says she can remember rolling on the floor, laughing as I read. I've continued my read-aloud sessions with my granddaughter who lives nearby. She has several favorite Pooh stories that we've read over and over. And she knows exactly what her grandmother means when I talk about the "real" Winnie-the-Pooh. I read ALICE IN WONDERLAND aloud to her and heard it for the first time myself. (Somehow I'd skipped it during my childhood and enjoyed it a lot.) I've also had the fortunate experience of being able to read to my granddaughter a few of my own chapter books, including DON'T CALL ME MARDA and LAND OF ANOTHER SUN. When I visit schools, I usually read my early reader, LITTLE PRINCE KNOW-IT-ALL to the younger students.

There's something magical about reading aloud to a child or a group of children. And it's a tradition that can be passed on. Our oldest son has read the entire Tolkien trilogy aloud to his daughter, with an individual voice for each character. And our daughter, the librarian, says that she knows the secret to capturing the attention of a classroom full of middle-schoolers when she's doing booktalks. She simply reads aloud passages from the books.

Happy reading aloud! Sheila Welch
Received on Tue 10 Aug 2004 03:05:28 PM CDT