Twenty Years Ago: The Read Aloud Handbook

Joanne Levy-Prewitt:

"The Read Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease was a guide to literature for children. As I recall, the second half of the book was a collection of book and story titles appropriate for different ages, but it was the first half that really influenced my parenting philosophy.

Simply put, Trelease wanted parents to ban television and read aloud to their young children, until, and even after, they could read on their own. First published in 1982, many children who were the beneficiaries of Trelease's ideas are now college age and beyond.

It would be interesting to conduct a study to determine whether the children Trelease hoped to influence have become active readers as adults. My guess is that many of them stopped reading for pleasure when they started middle school and were assigned specific books.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 28, 2006 7:10 AM
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