Diane comments in NYT: We often find what we need in the stories we read.

I am in awe of how stories teach us to ask the questions we need to ask, to be the best people we can be. Read more>>

I am working with a young woman who never ceases to amaze me with her capacity to feel and act compassionately toward others. And I am also struck on how hard this woman is on herself, with standards she would never inflict on others. My hope was that through the compassion she felt for the characters she met in a story, she would find her wellspring of compassion that could also extend to herself.

Together we read a human-interest story, The Afterlife by Ted Gup, about his experience of losing a 21-year-old son to drugs and alcohol. When the young woman and I were done discussing this piece, I was moved by how she was able to see the contrast between the empathy and compassion she felt for this grieving father and the harsh way the father chose to frame a habit he began in response to his grief.

I was glad to see where this young woman’s thinking took her in response to this story. And I myself wanted to say something to Ted Gup, hence my Letter to the Editor of the NYT (7.15.14) Read more>>

A story within a story—the magic of coincidences.

I recently had the pleasure of presenting my Conversational Reading approach to a statewide group of CT Librarians. This was a dream come true audience for me since it satisfied a long held fantasy of mine—to know something about what people in my audiences actually do with the ideas I present. As part of the program, the librarians were offered a grant to implement programs in their individual libraries, using whatever portions of the Conversational Reading approach they had learned with me that best fit their needs.

I have been overwhelmed with the results and I just have to share one recent story that comes from Jane and Piper who work at the Library in West Hartford CT. Piper, a lovely lab and Jane do Story Time.

Meet Piper.

Jane choose Beatrice’s Goat to create a program based on Conversational Reading.Beatrice’s Goat is about how one small animal opened up a whole new world and made possible a young girl’s dream of attending school in her small Ugandan village after her family is given an income-producing goat. The story is based on a true story about the work of Heifer Project International.

Witness the magic that happens when adults and children with a passion for a story come together. www.piperlovesthelibrary.blogspot.com and scroll down to Wednesday, July 2, 2014 Reading Beatrice’s Goat Together

How it all started…with a little help from my friendsAndrew Eder & 

Diane W. Frankenstein

I couldn’t make up the unknown wonderful coincidences of how this particular story had a special significance to this town in CT.

“We discovered that Beatrice Biira, the real girl from Uganda, the girl in the book, came to the United States to continue her education.  She came to Connecticut -she graduated from Connecticut College. We’re one of those tiny states, so this was pretty cool.  Oh, there’s more…the Heifer Project International funds that brought the goats to Kisinga, Uganda, Beatrice’s village, came from a little village in Connecticut – Niantic.”

I want to thank Jane for this wonderful story within a story. And I want to meet Piper! 

“ Summer Reading for Parents” (WSJ) addresses the challenges parents face in choosing the right book for their child but I see more confusion ahead with the publishing industry’s attempt to label books, hoping to inform parents to make better-informed choices.

Here are some simple guidelines to follow. A just right book pairs a child with a book with the proper reading level (children are able to read the words of the story) with their appropriate developmental age and stage (children are ready to think and talk about the subjects a book brings up).

Appropriate developmental age and stage and correct reading level is simple enough to determine and when you add in a child’s interest, you have some very easy to follow guidelines to make informed choices on the books your child reads.

However, I believe that every child deserves and needs a Reading Fairy Godmother. They know that the very best of books make a sound in the heart. Books enter the back door of the imagination, not the front door of logic and herein lay their magic.

When choosing a book for a child, I look for books that cause a reader to pause, and inside those pauses, our hearts open and become more porous to ideas and feelings. With each book, the heart breaks open a tiny bit and into that space new ideas and feelings jump in. Every time a heart breaks, it creates a space that invites new understandings. After each “heart break,” the heart expands and becomes more than it was.

Readers, both adults and children, experience with each memorable read, how their heart has been “broken," added to and altered. I believe this is the gift of reading

Father's Reading to their Children

While reading an article about how fatherhood informs a writer’s life, I found myself imagining my ideal father. My ideal father would not necessarily have to be capable of writing stories such as The Real Thief and T.H. White’s, The Once and Future Kingwho created Merlin, my dream father,  but he would be my very own Scheherazade, telling me magical stories that kept "..and then what happened?" alive and well. Together we would enter the world of story and create our very own understanding and language to talk about these stories.

I would also want my father to be playful, funny, lovable, reliable and eager to listen to all that I had to say. And he would make me feel like Cinderella.  Check out the song, Stealing Cinderella by Chuck Wicks. As many songs do, this one tells a heartfelt story that might possibly bring a tear or two to both fathers and daughters.

Summer Reading

According to Chartbeat, 55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on a website. This statistic has me thinking about what it takes to absorb an idea— 15 minutes is not even enough time to stretch out a muscle let alone ponder and reflect on an idea.

Concentration and mindfulness are in short supply when we speak of Internet use but they are in abundance when it comes to reading a book. Statistics and scientific findings clearly show how reading is good for the brain. Dan Hurley’s featured 2013 PBS documentary feature, “ Smarter Brains,” tells a very compelling story.

In addition to helping develop healthy brains, working to full capacity, reading works to enlarge our humanity. It brings to mind a quote from Barry Lopez:

“The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed.  Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other’s memory.  This is how people care for themselves.”


The calendar tells us summer has arrived and when it comes to reading, many children experience the summer slide, something that happens when young minds sit idle for three months. We know that children who do not read over the summer will lose more than two months of reading achievement. Summer reading loss is cumulative. By the end of 6th grade children who lose reading skills over the summer will be 2 years behind their classmates. AND think about the cumulative loss of hours of pleasure, the pleasure found while being lost and absorbed in a book.

Tips to make summertime reading pleasurable
Help kids find time to read
Continue to read aloud
Combine activities with books
Visit the Library
Relax the rules for summer, encourage children to read what they choose
Lead by example: children need to see parents reading

The ALA website http://www.ala.org/alsc/compubs/booklists/summerreadinglist is a wonderful resource for families, offering book recommendation for all ages.