My husband and I have four children – all now adults. Reading to them was always a treat for me and watching each of them in turn grow “too old to be read to” was an agony.
When my younger two boys, who shared a room and slept in twin beds side by side, were beyond picture books but not yet too old for nightly reading time I would perch on a kid-sized chair between their beds and power through the four-volume set of Howard Pyle’s King Arthur tales, chapter by chapter. Pyle’s stories definitely weren’t for babies: There were lots of battles and trouncing of evil, the stories were simple enough to follow, but the language was sophisticated enough to be challenging.
I remember the night I started chapter one of the first book in the set. I had carefully closed the door to the bedroom so as not to disturb my next older son in the room across the hall when I heard his muffled, slightly plaintive voice: “You can leave the door open.” Of course he couldn’t say “I want to hear the story too” but I got the message. The door was always left open after that and I took care to raise the volume a bit as I read.
I wish I’d had access to the information in Scholastic’s “Kids & Family Reading Report: 5th edition,” (which I discovered on the Galley Cat blog) in which 40% of kids aged 6-11 say they wish their parents hadn’t stopped reading to them. I can’t go back in time, gather all four of my kids around those twin beds and re-capture all the reading times I inadvertently missed. But what I can do is pass the information along to you to read and share with every parent you know!
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Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Author
Biography | View
- Just Fine They Way They Are (Calkins Creek, March 1, 2011)
- The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton (Clarion Books, 2010)
- Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (Holiday House, 2005; Berndtsdotter Books, 2012)
- When Esther Morris Headed West (Holiday House, 2001)
- The Legend of Strap Buckner (Holiday House, 2001)
- Wicked Jack (Holiday House, 1995)
Speaker / Presenter
Connie is an experienced speaker and presenter who enjoys sharing her passion for writing and her experience as a writer with readers and writers of all ages. She has presented to students, community, civic and professional organizations, writing groups, library audiences, and seniors – wherever book lovers gather!