Read a Book

.
Reading to My Kids

“When they were little I read

to them at night until my tongue

got tired. They would poke me

when I started to nod off after twenty pages

of Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket.

I read (to them) to get them to love reading

but I was never sure if it was working

or if it was just what I was supposed to do.

But one day, my daughter (fifteen then)

was finishing Of Mice and Men in the car

on our way to basketball.

She was at the end when I heard her say,

No, in a familiar frightened voice

and I knew right away where she was.

“Let’s do it now," Lennie begged,

“Let’s get that place now.”

“Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta,”

and she started crying, then I started crying,

and I think I saw Steinbeck

in the back seat nodding his head,

and it felt right to me,

like I’d done something right.”

 

—Kevin Carey, poet and writer, “Reading to My Kids,” The Writer’s Almanac, Oct. 17, 2016 

• Editorial Comment: Really? Does anyone read anymore?


PeezPix by Ted Pease

What Book Was This Again?










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“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard