President's Message for July & August 2010

This issue of The Read To Me Reader is dedicated to poetry. Beginning with lullabies, nursery rhymes and songs, and moving on to lyric, narrative, concrete, and free verse, poetry is an excellent way for children to appreciate words, imagery, and expression.

At our latest board meeting, a board member who always reads to his grandchild when he sees him shared how reading aloud to his grandson has paid off: On a recent visit to see his grandson, the child excitedly shared a book, struggling through some of the words and attempting to decode them. In Grandpa’s eyes, this was a verification of the power of reading aloud -- read to your child, and your child will become a reader.

Do you have a child who is starting to read and wants to share his reading ability with you? Here’s a fun way to encourage your child’s reading by taking turns: You read to your child, and your child reads to you.

In Mary Ann Hoberman’s book, You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together, written in poetic form, children will enjoy the reading experience as reader and child take turns reading aloud. The young child and the adult are treated to elements of poetry and story through the use of alliteration, rhyme, and repetition. Familiar fairy tales take on amusing twists, and children enjoy the new perspective. (Hint: Reading the original tales first may help your child appreciate the revised fairy tales all the more.)

I like what Carl Sandburg said about poetry: “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” Let’s not forget to include poetry in the read-alouds we share with our children, and let’s leave them with words with music all its own, a world of creative imagination.

Happy reading!