The Importance of Reading Aloud

I recently was asked by a wonderful organization called LitWorld to be one of their brand ambassadors for World Read Aloud Day on March 7th. I was excited and honored. I have been an avid reader my whole life. From when I read my first book by myself to this very day, reading is a therapeutic past time for me—and I love discussing what I read (thus my mammaslibrary book review blog).

I am asked by other women how I can find time to read!? As busy and stressed as I am, I don’t know how I couldn’t. It’s the only way I can wind down before bed. Even if it’s all of three pages, I have to do it. It’s like a glass of warm milk.

But becoming a WRADvocate for LitWorld has forced me to evaluate my influences in reading from when I was very young. My obsession with books was something I took for granted about myself. When I really stopped and thought about it, however, my parents did not read to me when I was little. They had emigrated here from Italy in the mid-1960s, knowing practically no English. By the time they had me, they only spoke self-taught broken English. So reading to me like other American parents did every night was not happening in my home.

So as I answered my WRADvocate profile questions, I became baffled. How did I become such a voracious reader and writer if my poor parents were struggling with the language themselves?

Well, when you hear it takes a village to raise a child, nothing could be more truthful then when it came to my upbringing. Looking back, I can tell you distinctly the first time I was given a book and had someone read aloud to me. It was my father’s American cousin and his wife who arrived at our home with a Little Golden Book of Disney’s Robin Hood. They read it to me in bed. I had to be four years old. It was wonderful and I was hooked.

Though my parents’ English improved through the years and they bought countless books for my sister and I, they still only read to us rarely. It was the wonderful reading time with teachers and the school librarian that fed my hunger for reading. It was an escape for me, as it is for all kids. Even as our class moved into chapter books, I remember my third- and fourth-grade teachers reading aloud to us. They would always stop at a cliffhanger, leaving us wanting more. It was such a great way to introduce us to the intrigue and rewarding perseverance that chapter books provide.

This is something I struggle with at home now with my daughter. She finds long chapter books daunting. I am using the reading aloud “a few chapters a night” approach right now to see if it works.

If it wasn’t for my father’s cousin, or my wonderful public grade school teachers and the school’s extensive library, I am not sure who would have nurtured my reading skills. I won the school’s Young Author’s Contest for both the 4th and 5th grade levels! This from a child whose parents still spoke broken English at home.

It is so very important to support programs to help children read. Children come from all kinds of socio-economic backgrounds and reading support may not always come from home, no matter how good a parent’s intentions are. It does take a village to keep kids reading and writing. And we need to help make sure those supporting literacy get the resources they need to help children. After all, we may have the next Hemingway out there!

Think about the children in your neighborhood, or around the globe. And especially your own children. Read to them often. Take them to the library with a big old tote bag to fill. Create your own family book club. See my post on this great idea. Urge your school or parish to run a book drive to support a local used book shop or library. Donate or raise funds as a community service project for organizations such as LitWorld.

And for LitWorld’s World Read Aloud Day (March 7th), plan a cool event at your local library, child’s school, scouting troop, or just at home with your family! LitWorld has great downloads, ideas, and kits to print and use to make that day reader-ific! Or simply, take ten minutes on March 7th with your kids, grab some books and read aloud. It’s the best gift you can give them. I am living proof of that.

In honor of my father’s cousin, Vito, who with his wife, was the first person to read aloud to me. We lost Vito to colon cancer on New Year’s 2012. He holds a special place in my heart, always.

Flora Caputo is a mom of a precocious daughter, a VP, Executive Creative Director and everything in between. She grew up with “off the boat” parents from Italy, and it has contributed to a grounded, domestic foundation for her life. From cooking, gardening and motherhood to business, marketing and career–join her journey to keeping it all together at Urban Domestic Diva.