In Defense of Read-Alouds

My four-year-old is reintroducing our family to the joy of read-alouds. 
With three older brothers and a set of parents at her disposal, it's no surprise that she has no shortage of people willing to read a story. 
What is surprising is that we ever stopped reading aloud to one another in the first place.

Somehow, without noticing, we slipped out of the habit of reading aloud, even before we moved to town and got cable TV last year.    It's been years since the boys listened to me read John R. Ericksen's "Hank the Cowdog" books, or J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy."  Some high school students from our church used to attend "Hobbit readings" at our house, enjoying a little interlude of culture and hot cocoa.  It was lovely.

I found these quotes at the Reading Rockets website (a PBS project):

"The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can't."  — Mark Twain

 "To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."— Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

"So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall."  — Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I'm not ready to throw away the TV, but I think it's time we blew the dust off the many books we have stacked in our family library, and do some reading, aloud, together, as a family.

Next time:  Eliana's top ten read-aloud books