From: Binawill at aol.com <Binawill>
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 00:34:21 EDT

Okay, after hearing the great read aloud stories, I want to move into Maia's house, and Stephen's house, and hang out at Lisa's school. Please? Books I love to read aloud include Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Duck on a Bike, My Friend Rabbit, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, Elbert's Bad Word, A Job For Wittilda, and, my favorite, The Frog Prince, Continued. Even though I do lots of story hours, I still get a few butterflies, so I tend to ham things up to counteract that stage fright. The afore mentioned books are perfect for that! With The Frog Prince, Continued, I go over the original story as an introduction. ("You all know the story of the Frog Prince" followed by very sketchy plot...) Then I use lots of wacky voices. I make the
 third (gingerbread house) witch sound very gluttonous... Usually I end up with a sore throat after reading several of these! When I was a bookseller, my friend Nancy and I did book readings together. Nancy is the queen of great voices, so I have imitated, oops, I mean emulated her style ever since.
  I talk to parents to child lit students about reading out loud, usually reading several stories to them at the same time. I tell them that I ham things up, but they should only do so if they are comfortable doing so. They should use the style that feels best to them. By the way, I read Frog Prince Cont. to a group of 5th graders after reading the Ransom of Red Chief. Both were big hits.
  When I was a kid, both of my parents read to us all the time. I put a picture of Dad reading to 2 year old me onto a brochure about reading to your kids.

Dad read The Yearling to my older sister-- I was considered too young at that point. I remember my sister telling me that Dad started to cry when Fodderwing died...it was a magical moment that I was able to share vicariously then. I think it was great that he was able to have such an honest reaction to what he was reading with my sister. For most of my life, my dad and I have cried together through books and movies.... Also, my parents would always read aloud from whatever they were reading if they thought something was interesting or well written. Another family favorite was The Sailor Dog. (Born at sea in the teeth of a gale, the sailor was a dog, and Scuppers was his name.) I sent my brother a copy of the book for Christmas when we were in our 30's. He said he cried when he opened the package. (He is NOT the sentimental type at all!) Thanks for this thread-- I have enjoyed reading it and remembering my own stories as well! Bina
  Bina Williams binawill at aol.com Bridgeport Public Library. CT
Received on Fri 13 Aug 2004 11:34:21 PM CDT