Children (and adults) benefit from someone handing them a book that speaks to their interests.

They say advice is worth what you paid for but here is a lovely story about how a piece of advice played out. Recently I was doing a program and a librarian and mother of two sons lamented how one of her sons is a reluctant reader. I asked her what are his interests and I suggested she find him some books, biography, nonfiction, or fiction that touch on those subjects. The following are the results of her following my advice:  “I took to heart your recommendation to find a book about soccer or track for my younger son.  Found a graphic novel and a non-fiction training book.   He read the novel last night and started on the second one right before bed.  Your advice worked!”

Children often say they don’t like to read because they can’t find books they want to read. All children need and benefit from someone handing them a book that speaks to their interests. Be the person who hands a child their home run books! 

Sixty Second Parent's blog highlights the merits of Reading Together: Everything You Need To Know To Raise a Child Who Loves To Read

“30 Days to Make a Lifetime Reader” Recommends Reading Together  read more>>


Ramping up the pleasure principle in reading and love of story helps prevent the well-documented summer slide in academics, most notably in reading. The key is to find a balance between school time reading and summer time reading. “30 Days to Make a Lifetime Reader” offers some valuable and easy to follow advice about children and reading.

“Poetry is emotion recorded in tranquility.” Wordsworth

It is no surprise that William Wordsworth, (4.7.1770) born in the midst of spring, wrote enduring words about daffodils— one of the happiest flowers I know. I don’t gaze upon them without recalling his words—“Fluttering and dancing in the breeze, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” Choose your own favorite line or two, a "souvenir" from his Daffodil poem. Below is the full dose of his musings about how they make him feel. And when you look upon a daffodil, how do they make you feel? I sometimes wonder if I am more in love with poetry or how poets describe poetry. You decide which you prefer—

“Poetry is emotion recorded in tranquility.” Wordsworth

I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch’d in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

“Others might tell stories to put you to sleep, but I tell stories to wake you up!”

Born April 4, Reb Nachman would be 239 years old today.
As a brilliant teacher, and considered to be the first Jewish storyteller, he succeeded in creating  stories which will endure forever. Reb Nachman understood the power of stories to transmit a people’s values and way of life and put into practice the adage:  Thou shalt not lasts a moment. Once upon a time lasts forever. 

Two of my favorite Nachman story collections are:
The Seven Beggars & Other Kabalistic Tales of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan Translator &


The Empty Chair: Finding Hope & Joy- Timeless Wisdom from a Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

Two memorable souvenirs from his writings are:

“Others might tell stories to put you to sleep, but I tell stories to wake you up!”
& 


“If you won't be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do you need tomorrow for?”

Children & Poetry- a match made in heaven!

I am delighted that the Academy of American Poets inaugurated in 1996 National Poetry Month, which is now held every April. Taking poetry “off the mantle”— saving it for meaningful occasions—and putting a little bit into our everyday lives is a good thing.  I think of a poem as a vitamin for the spirit.

Having said that I never understood the wisdom of having a 6-week unit of poetry. I remember well those 6-week units and by the end, I had enough poetry to last me a lifetime and I didn’t want to hear, once again, the ubiquitous question “What is the meaning of the poem?” In my way of thinking a better question is to ask: “What is the mood that is deposited after you read the poem—how does the poem make you feel?” I want children meeting poems that elicit a wide range of emotions—happy, sad, cheerful, reflective, humorous, soulful, heartfelt and others.

In our hurried lives, poetry offers the opportunity to get lost in a picture of words and feeling and reminds us to slow down and savor the everyday.  Robert Frost’s poem,

A Time To Talk captures that sentiment.

When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don’t stand still land look around

On all the hills I haven’t hoed,

And shout from where I am, “What is it?”

No, not as there is a time to talk.

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall,

And plod: I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit.