March 19 “When I was your age, television was called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I’m gonna read it to you.”*

Today is March 19th-International Read to Me Day. Why read to a child? It increases the chance of them acquiring an enthusiastic desire to read. It helps develop an increased vocabulary. It helps bond with children.

This is me reading in my granddaughter’s class, a year ago or so. I am holding “Chicken Soup With Rice.” By my feet is a large dictionary. I told the class that I was going to read the entire book, and hoped they were comfortable because it was going to take a long while. Their eyes got bigger than the book.

These are three books that I enjoyed reading to my kids and grandkids. These were their choices to read. The first is “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”, by Eileen Christelow, 2004. The grandkids all wanted it. The next is “Marven K. Mooney, Will You Please go Home” by Dr. Seuss. A favorite of my son’s choices to hear. The third is “Princess Furball” by Charlotte Huck, 1989. My daughter loves this book. My mom did too. She wrote a Master’s theses in literature using variants of the Cinderella story, this being one.

This is the children’s corner of my library. I don’t read to them much any more-well we did get into a tongue twister battle last week. I teach them about being gentle with older books, and then let them explore. “Where’s Waldo” has been pulled out a lot recently.

If you can read to a child, please do. It helps both of you. Keep them interested in books. You keep interested in books, as well. Take care of those books, to be true to your-shelf.

*quote from Grandpa in “The Princess Bride”.