The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction by Meghan Cox Gurdon

This is me with my thing for books about books, and this is one that I was excited about. It is basically a great motivator to get people to read to their children (and even other adults), because of the great benefits of it. Similar to The Read-Aloud Family, but that book is at least half a long booklist, and this was purely research and discussion about how great reading aloud is to your family and kids. The thing that I really liked about it was the high-quality writing style. You can tell that Gurdon is a professional writer, with amazing word choice and a really great way of putting her thoughts across. Every thought is well-developed and she provides a lot of evidence for everything she claims. If I weren't already a believer in reading aloud, I would be after reading this book. But I was also a little intimidated by Gurdon's definition of read-aloud time--she read aloud to her FIVE children EVERY NIGHT for an HOUR, even while she was a working mom! (Enter shocked face emojis here...) I feel like I struggle to find time to read that much to my three kids even while I stay at home with them. I read plenty of picture books to my little kids, but I don't read every night from chapter books to my bigger kids--it's gotten harder as they've gotten older and more busy and have things going on in the evenings (or I do).

But I really liked a few of the things Gurdon said about reading aloud. While talking about how hard it is to read in this time of business and cyber-distractions, she said, "Making the time to read together is almost an obstinate act of love. The mutual effort--the sacrifice of time--becomes part of the reward." I LOVED that about it being an obstinate act of love.

I also loved what she said about how important reading aloud is to teaching children about the past and about our values and our history and our beliefs. She said, "No child is an island, to paraphrase John Donne. Children come from families. They are the newest braids in that cord of humanity, and it is right and beautiful that they should know something of what their parents and grandparents value, while at the same time having access to the classic works of human imagination that we all own in common." Reading aloud the stories from Little House on the Prairie to my kids gives them this entry into what I love, and into what is part of our common culture and what we've loved.

I really appreciated this book, and I felt so motivated to read aloud more after reading this. It's no coincidence that I also finished two other read-aloud books this week while reading this book, two read-alouds we've been working on for months. I believe in the power of reading with my kids, and I love doing it, so I want to keep it up, even as it gets harder.