[CALIBK12] Reading aloud to adults

[Karen Cole]

I, too, read aloud to adults and kids of all ages.  Our adult parties and family get-togethers are well known for always including some read-aloud time, sometimes with great drama and flair, and other times more simply.  I think this tradition started when I was but a wee girl and my father read aloud to me and my sisters every evening, all the way through elementary, junior high, high school, and continued the times we were home from college.  (Treasure Island was one of my early favorites.  What's not to like about swashbuckling pirates, buried treasure, and the great voices my father could use?  Even his normal voice sounded a bit like John Wayne.)  We lived on a farm and did not have a television, so reading together was one way our family bonded.  Storytelling and music were also a big part of our family (must have come from the Irish half of our lineage), and I still remember many stories shared by grandparents, aunts and uncles, and my parents.  Now I share some of those same stories with my nieces and nephews. 

As a young adult, when I did a road trip from Ohio to Arizona and back, I read aloud The World According To Garp.  Fortunately I do not get carsick, so my travelling friend and I both loved it.   

A few years later, I read aloud The Bridge Across Forever to my fiancé, just to see what he thought about the concept of a "soulmate".  My husband and I still read aloud to each other.  It can be a very romantic, entertaining, enlightening, and sometimes intimate shared activity.

My point is that we never outgrow our love of reading and being read to.  

 

Happy Holidays, One and All.

 

-- Karen

 

 

Karen Cole, Librarian

St. Michael's Episcopal Day School

2140 Carmichael, CA  95608

916-485-3418

FAX 916-485-9084

karencole at smeds.net <mailto:karencole at smeds.net> 

 

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library. 
~Jorge Luis Borges

 

P Save a tree. Don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary.

________________________________

From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [mailto:calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of ladewig
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 8:40 PM
To: CALIB POST
Subject: [CALIBK12] Reading aloud to adults

 

Jeanne Nelson posted: "And Dr. Krashen, I read to my son and his shipmates when they came home on leave from the Navy :-)  I do not think there is an age when we do not enjoy being read to and hearing stories told.  Reading aloud-- the other audio version."

 

Connie Y. sent to me: "I'll bet if we polled the CALIB listserv, many of us would admit we love to listen to a well-read story. I can't imagine I'm alone. I still love to be read to, and I graduated from grade 8 in [year censored]*.  Don't do the math :)  Good readers bring books to life for those who like hearing the richness of our language and visualizing a great story." 

 

So I wonder - how many of us use the family holiday gatherings as a time to read aloud some good holiday literature? In my family, I read aloud (to mostly adults one year) "The Night Before Christmas" and several years ago I read aloud "The Chanukah Guest" in my best "Bubbie" (Jewish Grandma) voice to a group of adults, who loved it (and none of them were Jewish)! One tradition we do most years is read the nativity story from the Gospel of Luke in place of a formal grace, just before the buffet line begins. 

 

So Calibers - do you like to be read aloud to? Any other ideas to share for holiday read-alouds? I'm thinking about reading the O. Henry story about the lady with the beautiful long tresses . . . or maybe "Boxes for Katje" (was a CYRM older readers picture book several years ago).

 

*By the way Connie, I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL that year!

 

Joanne Ladewig  (A.K.A. "Library Lady")

Library Media Tech

Lawrence Elementary, GGUSD

Garden Grove, California

shatz at verizon.net

 

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.

Comments are my own and may not represent the views of GGUSD

 

 

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