It’s not uncommon for kids to have trouble focusing on reading. In a day of endless entertainment (and distractions), analog reading can be at a disadvantage for capturing their attention—at least until you get them hooked.
Some kids may also experience issues if they’re dealing with an undiagnosed developmental challenge. If you think this could be the case, check out Maya’s framework for assessing your child’s development and knowing when to seek help.
Often, children just need a little help getting started and staying engaged in reading. Take a look at these eight tips that can get your child into books, from your earliest days reading aloud to them through learning to read on their own and continuing to read as they grow older.
In this article, we’ll answer questions like How can you get your child to read more? How can you help your child love reading? How can you get your child to read independently? and Should you use technology to help your child read?
Make a Reading Routine
Thoughtful routines help children (and all of us) build healthy habits, from bedtime and mealtimes to exercise and beyond. And reading is no different. Parents can establish a regular reading time in order to build and cement the reading habit.
This might mean reading a bedtime story with your child each night. You could curl up and read a picture book with your young child, or read out loud from a chapter book when they’re ready. In order to successfully establish a reading routine, make it a point to do this every night to the best of your ability. If you’re tired, just read a short book or a few pages. It’s the repetitive action that really cements the reading habit, not killing yourself to stretch out the amount of time.
But bedtime story time is not the only option. If you have a more flexible schedule, you might read with your child every morning, after lunch, or while you enjoy a cup of afternoon tea. You might take a weekly trip to the library for fresh reads, and then enjoy the books together afterward. The point is to find something that works for you and your child and then turn it into a reading routine. Keep it fun and focus on the closeness and interaction with your child, and soon it can become a part of your day that you both look forward to.
(For more ideas, check out these summer reading tips for kids from a seasoned early childhood educator.)
Choose Age-Appropriate Books
In order to really accomplish that goal and build good reading habits, it’s crucial for your child to enjoy reading time. You need to hook them to focus on the book and make them want to return to the experience again and again. To really engage your child in books, you need to consider the reading level, the format, the topic, and the overall experience—and choosing age-appropriate books is a major part of all of those elements.
Books that are written in language they can easily understand will obviously engage kids more than other books. Similarly, a picture book with bright, attractive illustrations will draw in a 1-year-old—or often even a 5-year-old—more than a book with no illustrations. A graphic novel written at the child’s reading level may engage an early independent reader more than a dense chapter book. And what makes a good children’s book is different from what makes an excellent young adult book, so take the time to seek out recommendations and find the best books for your child at each stage.
Follow Their Interests … But Vary the Genre
In the same vein, reading books about topics kids find interesting is a powerful way to engage them. If your child is obsessed with trains or butterflies, they’ll be primed to pick up a picture book about those themes. If your kid is a huge sports or music fan, books about their preferred topic or about their favorite stars may do the trick.
As they get older, helping them define their evolving tastes and find books that fit their interests can be the difference between keeping them avid readers or losing them to other pursuits. Maybe they love fantasy and adventure, or maybe they connect better with books about regular kids facing everyday challenges. Maybe discovering the world of science fiction or murder mysteries will engage your tween with reading in a new way, while teens might get into romance, thrillers, biography, or historical dramas.
All that said, there’s nothing wrong with stretching your child sometimes. You may hook them at first by reading about their favorite topic and choosing age-appropriate books with simple vocabulary. But once you have them on board, you can also stretch them by reading books about topics you find interesting and sharing your enthusiasm, or by reading a book with more complicated language and stopping to explain words and context when necessary.
All along the way, expose them to the widest variety possible of books, including diverse styles of fiction and nonfiction, poetry and rhyming books, books with diverse characters and by diverse authors, and of course books about a wide range of topics. To help, check out our curated lists of children’s books for specific themes.
Bring Your Enthusiasm & Read with Conviction
The overall experience can be part of what engages a child in reading time and gets them to buy in long enough to get hooked on the story. Just being close to you and receiving your undivided attention may be the best part of story time for them. You can also create settings that make reading time special: A tea party that includes a shared picture book. A trip to a coffee shop with a stack of books to thumb through. A summertime picnic with older kids in which you all sprawl on a blanket with your own novels.
Find books you love reading to your child. Seek out your own childhood favorites to share, or look until you find new favorites to discover together. Get cozy, comfy, and close. Read with inflection and really try to get into the story. Experiment with using different voices or accents for different characters, if that feels right to you. If you bring enthusiasm, love, and attention to reading with your child, they’ll learn to value reading time.
It’s incredibly valuable to keep reading to kids long after they are capable of reading to themselves. You’ll read different sorts of books to them than they read alone, and you’ll bring explanations, interaction, and your relationship to the shared reading experience.
Nevertheless, you’ll want to start transitioning them to reading independently as soon as they’re ready, in addition to enjoying your read-alouds. One way you can do that is to motivate them by letting them catch you reading to yourself—books, magazines, newspapers—anything they can identify as reading (as opposed to generic screen time). But it will take some more hands-on support, as well. The tips below deal especially with supporting kids to read on their own.
Give Your Child the Skills to Read
Nothing will kill the urge to read like encountering too much frustration when they try. If your child lacks the skills to read with enough ease, they’ll likely turn away from the pursuit. But the good news is that any parent can easily prepare their child for reading just in the time they already spend with their child.
Interacting with your child from birth onwards is key to setting them up for success as readers. Talk to them, listen to them, and respond to what they say (in whatever language you’re most comfortable in; it doesn’t have to be English). Read or recite nursery rhymes with them and play with words, sounds, and rhymes. Point out the words in books you read aloud. Teach them the ABCs, including the sounds the letters make, and how to write them.
All of this will help them learn to read more easily and read better once they start. And the easier and more satisfying the experience, the more they’ll be inclined to keep it up.
Be Patient & Supportive
Patience is arguably the most powerful tool in a parent’s arsenal (if the most easily overlooked, especially by new parents). When your child is small, patience in reading time looks mostly like tolerating their wiggles and interruptions—which are actually a valuable part of the story time experience—and letting it drop when they’ve had enough.
When they start to learn to read on their own, though, is when patience becomes especially vital. Bringing your patience and supportive attitude to helping your emergent reader is mission-critical for getting them to stick with it and power through the hard parts. When they make the same mistake for the 1000th time, stomp off in frustration, or throw the book in anger, you can make the choice to take a deep breath and not respond until (and unless) you have something kind and helpful to say.
Parents are only human, too, and you won’t be perfect. But recommitting again and again to being as patient and supportive as you can will pay big dividends all along your journey raising a reader.
Tip: If your child is getting frustrated reading themselves, you can offer to alternate reading sentences, pages, or even words to give them a break. They’ll also get a lot out of just reading along in their heads as you read out loud, maybe pointing to the words as you go.
Set Reading Goals & Rewards
Setting goals and incentives may also motivate your child to read more, to push past challenges, and to choose reading in the face of other distractions and demands on their time.
Many libraries and school districts have summer reading programs that allow children, teens, and even adults to win prizes for their summer reading. You can also set up a reading incentive program with your child. Once they have a stack of tempting books, involve them in the process of choosing goals and rewards that will inspire them to read.
They may want to aim to read a certain number of books or pages in a given timeframe, or they may want to read at a set frequency or for a certain amount of time each day or week. Help them brainstorm realistic goals, and then talk to them about reading rewards they might like to earn.
Keep in mind that these don’t have to be material or financial. Maybe they’d like to earn the right to choose dinner one night, to watch or choose a family movie, or to earn special time together, like playing their favorite game (that you hate) or going somewhere they love.
You can even up the fun factor by playing reading bingo with various reading challenges. Make your own card, or just download our printable Reading Challenge Bingo card. Get it free inside the VIP Vault.
Use Technology to Your Benefit
Kids today are digital natives. You can turn that to your benefit by building some reading into their technology time.
But a word of warning: It’s probably better to think in terms of adding reading to their screen time than in terms of adding screens to their reading time. There’s some evidence that reading on a screen is not the same as reading on paper, and many parents want their children to experience ways to entertain themselves without screens, too. So do be sure to introduce your child to abundant physical books and make sure they always have access to new ones, from your library, a little free library, or used or new bookstores. Similarly, limiting screen time is one of the most parent-proven ways to spur kids to turn to books for entertainment.
That said, there are many ways to add reading to screen time, from word games to e-books. Even small kids can play ABC games on tablets or phones. Later, they can graduate to word and spelling games. Seek out educational technology and games that have educational benefits, and put those in the mix of their digital entertainment. Older kids can play Wordle, individual or social scrabble-type games, and other word games that support reading skills.
In terms of e-books, they’re a great option when traveling, or anytime you want your child to read but can’t necessarily cart around a bunch of books. They’re also good for kids who get into a series and tear through the books so quickly that you can’t keep up, even with frequent library visits.
Numerous online bookstores offer a huge variety of e-books at reasonable prices, but you can also save money by using your local library—most have lots of e-books available to check out with simple apps you can access from your phone.
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Maintaining or improving family wellbeing is a tightrope act. From financial hardships to time pressures and life upheavals, there are a host of challenges primed to throw it off. And that’s before factoring in the daily struggle of parenting itself, complete with its constant juggle of cleaning, managing tantrums, and food prep. Not to mention the destabilizing effects of recent lockdowns and the pandemic’s toll.
Hardly surprising then, that parental stress and reports of parental burnout seem to be at an all-time high. The end result of all this stress? It lands with our kids. Which is one reason childhood development expert Dr. Gabor Maté says that “the primary task of parenting is self-parenting, taking care of ourselves.”
But self-care for moms and dads doesn’t have to mean taking time out of the family flow. In fact, here’s a radically simple self-care practice that should come as welcome news for overburdened parents: Reading books with your children. Yes, it’s good for your kids. It nurtures their early literacy through boosting language development, building vocabulary and stimulating brain capacity, plus brings them a multitude of social and emotional benefits. But evidence suggests it can also help you, reducing your stress, easing depression, boosting your self-esteem, and making you feel more connected.
Shared Reading Lowers Parenting Stress
Can reading with your children really have that much of an impact on reducing parental stress? Yes, according to some exciting research.
Researchers looked at what happened to parenting stress levels in a group of mothers when they were encouraged and guided through verbal interactions with their children, via pretend play, shared reading, and everyday routines. The results were eye-opening.
Promoting positive parent-child interactions resulted in parenting stress levels that were 17.7 percent lower than those in the control group, even when those moms experienced financial hardships and educational challenges in addition to their parenting load. That’s huge.
Reading to Your Kids May Help with Parental Depression
Another study looked at the effects of the Reach Out and Read program on a small sample of young mothers. Though the study size was limited, the positive outcomes were notable. Adolescent mothers who read with their children were nearly five times more likely to report that reading was one of their favorite activities to do with their child, and seven times more likely to report that reading was one of their child’s favorite activities. So, they were rewarded with a high level of enjoyment on both sides.
But, what’s more, among the mothers reading with their children, the odds of having clinically significant depression decreased by nearly half, while for those in the control group the odds actually increased. That’s a big result for a small wellbeing practice.
Sharing Story Time Boosts Parents’ Self-Esteem
Stress, difficult life events, anxiety, loneliness, and depression can all take their toll on self-esteem. Nurturing self-esteem and our sense of self-efficacy—feeling that we are capable—is an important part of caring for ourselves.
And there’s evidence to suggest that reading with your kids can even help in this area, too. When parents gave feedback after taking part in family literacy programs, one of the main benefits they reported was an uptick in their confidence—in themselves generally, in their ability to communicate, in their own literacy skills, and in their ability to help their children.
So next time you pick up a book with your kid, just think: You might get a little confidence boost while you’re at it. And as every parent trying to do their best knows, that’s no small thing.
Family Reading is Good for Parents Over Time
Of course, reading with your children is about more than what’s going on during the time you’re enjoying a story together. The benefits build and continue long after the book has closed. And that goes for its effects on parental wellbeing, too.
In one study, the impacts of shared reading between low-income mothers and their kids, from infancy through to toddlerhood, produced encouraging results when it came to parental stress, parental warmth, and parental sensitivity. Reading with kids at six months was positively correlated with experiencing less parental stress when their babies reached 18 months, suggesting that early shared reading pays off for parents down the line. Sounds like a self-care investment worth making.
When it comes to parental stress, parental burnout and family wellbeing, there are no quick fixes. But it’s good to know that something as simple as sharing a book together benefits not just one generation, but two. And that the evidence for its effectiveness is mounting.
It doesn’t take much to get behind the idea of a better parent-child relationship, being close, taking a quiet few moments, enjoying a cuddle, and feeling the pressure ease off you as a parent to be “active.” So, next time one of your go-to self-care activities feels too ambitious or unrealistic, remember that reading to your little one can be self-care, too, and you can continue reaping the benefits long after it’s over.
There are thousands of ABC books out there. So you’ll need a few good filters to narrow down the options. If your goal is to help teach your preschooler the letters of the alphabet (as opposed to vocabulary, say), use the following five questions to evaluate books:
- Are the target letters legible and set apart by size, color, or font?
- Do they use the most common sounds for each letter?
- Do the illustrations complement (not overwhelm) the letters?
- Is the text kept to a minimum?
- Is the story and vocabulary engaging and understandable for a preschooler or your particular child?
Please note: All of my criteria are for assessing printed alphabet books, which I recommend highly over ebooks for letter learning. Although digital books, including ABC books with interactive elements, are growing in popularity, early research suggests that printed books are more engaging for three- and four-year-old kids. There’s something about holding printed books in hand that gets three and four year olds more jazzed about naming and touching letters than ebooks do.
Look for letters that are easily legible and set apart by size, color, or font
When teaching letters is your aim, it should go without saying that the alphabet books you choose should feature crisp, clear letters. But this point is often overlooked by book buyers. We get sold on the novelty, cleverness, or artistry of certain ABC books’ content or illustrations, forgetting our preschool audience and our goal of teaching letters.
In terms of what does work for alphabet books, a wide range of fonts will do. The typography or text characters just need to clearly distinguish the lines, curves, humps and dots of the letters they feature.
I recommend that parents start with books that focus on uppercase, print letters first. This eliminates the challenge of tackling the intricacies of the hooks and curves that turn up in many fonts’ portrayals of lowercase “a” and “g.” (See this great video on the elusive letter G.)
Once kids have mastered the uppercase letters, then you can shift attention to the lowercase versions and even feel free to throw script and handwritten fonts into the mix. Most alphabet books that feature uppercase letters also include examples of lowercase letters on their pages, so you’ll have both bases covered.
Many books that make lovely additions to more advanced readers’ libraries don’t pass the eyeball test for beginning letter learning. In AlphaBit, for example, the color gradients, jagged edges, and inner dots muddle the letter shapes. Its target audience is likely a more advanced reader with an appreciation for classic video games. Think young gamers with the skills to navigate pixelated seek-and-find quests and more advanced vocabulary on the page.
And in A to Z Menagerie, the illustrations are the main act. The tiny object labels are mere afterthoughts, written in such a light, faint font that you can’t trace the letters’ contours or highlight their curves and intersections for beginning readers. This title is more suited to building oral language and knowledge of letter sounds than for teaching kids to recognize print letters.
Seek out ABC books that use the most common letter sounds
To help beginning readers start to make letter-sound connections, it’s best to focus on introducing them to the highest-frequency sound(s) for each letter. For example, the /g/ sound for G (go), not the /j/ sound (gesture).
But alphabet books tend to be all over the map with the words they use to represent sounds. Some, like P is for Pterodactyl: The WORST Alphabet Book Ever (their words, not mine), delight in presenting rare sounds for each letter. Use a title like this to build spelling skills down the line, not for teaching preschoolers their ABCs.
Similarly, A is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation, offers a beautiful and inventive exploration of variations in languages across cultures and subverts the “A-is-for” formula to serve up matches in other languages. This would be a book to buy if your aim was sparking lovely conversations about vocabulary with the little linguists in your life. It’s not a fruitful starting point for teaching English letter-sound basics, though.
When browsing ABC books, you may want to use Jessica Toste’s sound chart, shown below, to check which use the highest-frequency sound for each letter. Keep in mind that for the letter X, the best examples will fall at the ends of words: Fox and box better illustrate the main /ks/ sound of the letter x than xylophone, an ABC book favorite that actually features the /z/ sound. That said, few alphabet books feature the most common sound for every single letter, so my rule of thumb is to go with books where at least 20 examples do, or (preferably) even more.
Make sure the illustrations don’t overwhelm the letters
The classic letter-is-for-object format (e.g., A is for apple) can present a bit of a riddle for kids to solve. If the puzzle is too complex, the learning can take a hit. For example, an illustration of D is for dog might also show a yard, ball, stick and any number of other objects in addition to a dog. This means the child trying to understand the words will need to figure out which is the target item. When the illustration is too complex or is open to multiple interpretations, it makes the lesson harder to grasp.
So simpler illustrations are better for alphabet teaching. You want your little one to tune into the letter shapes, names, and sounds, not get lost in the imagery or mystery of the sound-object match. Q is for queen paired with an image of a woman in a crown is more helpful than hard-to-interpret scenes meant to illustrate abstract words like question, quirky, or quality.
Additionally, some of the books with the most compelling illustrations also have the least-clear letter shapes. At least eight different alphabet books have won Caldecott medals or honors, which are given to the artists of exceptional picture books, but art (not letters) are their focus. The result: imaginative but less recognizable letter forms. These volumes are better suited to engage more advanced learners than for teaching preschoolers the alphabet.
Caldecott Honor winner Alphabatics is an exception. Lauded for its illustrations, it also features bold sans serif upper and lowercase letters that draw kids’ attention to the letter shapes.
Look for ABC books that don’t have too much text
And it’s not only illustrations that can clutter and distract from letters on the page. Too much text is a drag on little ones’ attention, too. In the face of text overload, studies suggest that kids start paying more attention to the illustrations.
Moreover, a small study that compared how middle-income parents read a “busy” and a “less busy” alphabet book to kids found that the density of text and images affected how parents spoke with kids. The “less busy” book featured fewer words and sentences per page, more monochromatic images, and a larger target letter printed in a contrasting color. This format led the parents to talk about the print in a way they didn’t with the busier book.
One caveat is that most ABC books have more text and images than are ideal for letter-teaching purposes, so it may take some time to find your favorites. Still, titles with simple text like B is for Baby by Atinuke are out there.
Check that the book and vocabulary will make sense to your child
There’s a lot more going on in reading an ABC book than flipping through a stack of letter flashcards—happily. So it’s also important to consider the story and vocabulary in an ABC book, as well as the background knowledge and context necessary to understand it.
Aim to select books that make sense to kids on both the word and story levels. If the vocabulary is too much of a stretch in terms of meaning and pronunciation, it only distracts from the core mission of teaching letters. Lighten the cognitive load by choosing books full of words your child is likely to already understand or can quickly grasp, plus storylines or examples they care about.
A common misstep parents make is buying alphabet books on themes that interest us, not our kids. Sure, they’ll get something out of the shared reading experience of nearly any book, but why not put your child first when you choose a book for them?
U is for Unicorn: The ABCs of Silicon Valley is hilarious, but I would give it to an older child, even a middle or high schooler, as a way to build vocabulary and topic knowledge.
Emergent readers will get more out of titles about the horned variety of unicorn than the elusive billion-dollar-valuation startup. And while incubator starts with the common /i/ sound, it’s a bit advanced for the preschool set.
Even alphabet books designed with kids in mind can lead us astray from letter learning by introducing less-common letter sounds or a variety of distracting fonts. Alphabet books that explore historical figures, local habitats, folklore, and more are wonderful when you want to build your child’s knowledge of different topics, bolster their vocabulary, and deepen their spelling knowledge—not for teaching them their letters early on. In fact, I’d venture to say that most alphabet books are best suited for exploring topics other than the alphabet. The intricate illustrations and advanced vocabulary just aren’t designed to help beginning readers lock in on print.
May these five questions help you home in on titles that will actually help build the letter knowledge your child needs.
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When my daughter was smaller, one of our greatest pleasures was walking to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from our brick colonial in Richmond. We didn’t stay long—toddler attention spans are short—but we visited frequently and never tired of things to discover. Some favorites included Barkley Hendricks and Kehinde Wiley portraits, decorative arts collections, and African masks and textiles.
Fast-forward almost a decade and, to my surprise, a new and very different kind of museum has captured our joint attention in 2023—selfie museums. So, what is a selfie museum? It’s a novel gallery that showcases a different kind of collection: photo backdrops designed for visitors to strike a pose and photograph themselves. They’ve been cropping up all over the country since 2019. And while on one hand they seem to cater to the silliest, most superficial elements of our society, they are also pretty entertaining and well worth a look by parents eager for fresh ways to bond with kids.
Selfie Museums aren’t a destination in and of themselves. This is not waterpark-level or NBA game-level fun. They’re more like a pleasant way to spend a little time. My daughter outwardly enjoyed the museum and, when asked if she would recommend it to friends, gave a qualified yes. Her exact words: “It’s not the most fun thing ever to do.” That sounds like faint praise, but is a ringing endorsement in the too-cool-for-everything world of tween talk.
We stumbled into the Photoverse Selfie Museum at 3rd Street Market in Milwaukee one afternoon. We had some time to kill before an Admirals game where my daughter’s choir was performing the national anthem. We had salads from the Greenhouse in the market, then hopped from selfie booth to selfie booth, making faces and doing silly poses for about 40 minutes.
Honestly, the museum reminded me of a tween version of the imaginative play stations that used to occupy her for hours at children’s museums when she was a preschooler. But instead of dutifully piling fake produce into her cart or circling through the faux checkout line, she brought her own energy to the wacky displays. One selfie station brought out her dance moves, while another prompted me to reenact an ad for a piano course. The backdrops set the scene but we, the characters, drove the plot. And the whole thing sparked some needed connection and humor together, on her plane.
Of course, being the mom that I am, I couldn’t help but try to make the selfie museum experience educational, and so I’ll share with you my lessons learned about enriching this cute bonding experience. Here are three ways you can add some depth to the shallows.
Dig into the museum’s origin story.
Luckily, this particular museum was produced by the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, so we could use it as a point of departure to talk about the fine arts school, the degree programs it offers, and the kinds of careers its students embark upon—30 percent open their own businesses. This sparked all kinds of open-ended questions and conversation: What would it mean, for example, to study illustration, animation, or communication design versus English, business, or some of the other paths highlighted at colleges my daughter’s visited? Does she think she might like to build a portfolio in the pre-college summer and weekend programs they offer when she’s in high school? Or attend the summer camp that dives into drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics with middle schoolers?
The point is that every museum (selfie museums included) has an origin story, and digging into who started it and why can lead you down some interesting paths. The conversation that results from the experience can have an impact far beyond the life of your child’s interest in the snapshots.
Converse and build vocabulary.
Remember, the key to dialogue with kids at any age is to TALK (Take turns, Ask questions, Label and point, and Keep the conversation going). Depending on the photo booth’s content, your child’s age, and your creativity, you’ll be able to introduce some new vocabulary during the experience. For the youngest visitors, colors, shapes, and textures are easy objects of conversation. Take opportunities to teach variations of words they know. Is the piano blue? Or, is teal or turquoise a more fitting word choice?
With kids of any age, and especially older ones, use the displays and the whole experience to spark more personal conversation. The point is to connect with your child, get them talking, listen to what they have to say, and share your own ideas. The richer and wider-ranging your discussions with your child over the years, the richer their own thinking and vocabularies will be. Not to mention, the richer and deeper your relationship.
Go on a treasure hunt.
Those who’ve read my book, Reading for Our Lives, know that I’m a huge fan of I Spy. It’s a fun, free, search-and-find game that can be played anytime, anywhere. If you’ve got little kids in tow, consider sending them searching for letter sounds, rhyming words, or whatever literacy skill you’re working on, before they strike a pose. Simply say, “I spy with my little eye…” and fill in the blank. You could have them look for a specific object in the museum—say, a book—by giving a hint: “I spy with my little eye something that rhymes with hook.” The child may point to the object in question, which is great. But also encourage them to name it.
Here are some literacy-building I Spy variations to try with younger kids (for older kids, just scroll down):
- Shapes, e.g. I spy something that’s square.
- Colors, e.g. I spy something red.
- Letters, e.g. I spy the letter T.
- Letter Sounds, e.g. I spy the letter that says /s/.
- Rhyming, e.g. I spy something that rhymes with stair.
- Onsets and rimes, e.g. I spy something that starts with the /k/ sound.
- Ending sounds, e.g. I spy something that ends with the /r/ sound.
With tweens, you can skip the “I spy with my little eye” preamble and just bring their attention to some surprising element on display, or prompt them to guess what you’re thinking about in a particular section. You might note a piece of antiquated technology, a cool color or texture, or maybe something that reminds you of something you both know about—a film, video, place, book or any other shared memory. Give clues if they’re up for playing along, or just draw them out with a thoughtful question.
For example: You might say, “Well, that makes me laugh! It makes me think of that ping pong table at Juiceland…” or “Wow, I see something that looks like [insert favorite celebrity] would wear…” and see if they rise to the bait. Chances are they won’t be able to resist trying to guess what you’re referring to. And as you look beyond the obvious, draw connections or inferences, and voice opinions, you’ll be building up your family language of shared references and experiences.
Selfie museums, rooted as they are in the current moment with a gaze turned to oneself, may not offer the lessons we traditionally associate with museums, such as insight into historical objects or exposure to diverse cultures. But they can still be points of departure for reflection, conversation, critical thinking, and comparison. Darn near anything can create opportunities for dialogue, expression, and connection.
The bottom line is that learning can and should happen everywhere—even the selfie museum—and it doesn’t have to detract from the fun.
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Spotify tells me that “Level Up” by Ciara was my most-played song in 2022. That’s fitting, given what a banner year it was in my work to empower parents as their children’s first teachers.
The highlights: I launched a new website. Published my first book. Recorded my first audiobook. Went on a book tour. Made my national television debut. Returned to speaking on stages after being grounded by the pandemic.
But the deeper story of the heaps of effort, doubt, discomfort, frustration, and grit it took to forge those accomplishments is the real triumph. One day I’ll write a book about it, but for now suffice to say that as much as 2022 was a great year, it was not a perfect, easy, or predictable one. Each month I had to push myself to do things I hadn’t done before and seldom felt ready to do. I had to share my ideas on a larger scale and risk mistakes, misunderstandings, and criticism. I had to find ways to have a bigger impact in the world while still holding things down for my family at home.
I took the leap, though, and the payoff was helping thousands of parents gain the knowledge and confidence they need to nurture, teach, and advocate for kids on the road to reading. So, in the spirit of celebration and gratitude, here’s a list of my favorite accomplishments in 2022. I share these milestones with you because you’ve been a part of all of these wins. I’m encouraged to know that people out there are reading my blog posts, newsletters, and book. Together, we can create a world where every child can thrive as a reader.
Launched a new and improved MayaSmart.com.
My team and I published more than 100 blog posts and newsletters in 2022 and, thanks to a website redesign, we were able to get the content in front of a much wider audience. I worked with GLIDE Design to reimagine and build a new MayaSmart.com from the ground up and could not be more pleased with the results.
The new site marries compelling visuals with smart functionality and architecture to help parents quickly find the resources they need to support their children. And its search engine optimization has led to increased website traffic as well. Thousands of parents are now able to find and enjoy the free family literacy resources that we release on the site each week and sign up to receive weekly reminders to keep nurturing, teaching, and advocating for reading.
Fun fact: Both our most-visited book roundup and most-visited how-to post of the year focused on teaching children the alphabet.
Returned to in-person speaking.
I take every opportunity available to encourage people to invest in a strong start for all our children, so they can thrive in school and life. And the importance of intentional, ongoing support for families with young children is even more urgent given pandemic-related academic losses and trauma.
So I was particularly honored to share this message with hundreds of women during a keynote speech at the 2022 Women United Bruncheon of the United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County. It was my first in-person speaking appearance since the pandemic began, and I followed it up with book talks across the country, including in D.C., Austin, Chattanooga, Santa Fe, and Louisville.
If you’re interested in bringing me to your neck of the words, see details at mayasmart.com/speaking.
Published Reading for Our Lives.
My first book, Reading for Our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six, launched in August. In it, I share my journey to raise a reader, explain how reading unfolds over a child’s life, and give parents research-based strategies for fostering it from birth onwards.
The book is also available in an audio format, which gives parents a way to consume the content on the go amid busy days with little children. I’m so thankful for the enthusiastic ratings and reviews that are rolling in from readers.
If you read and enjoyed the book, please comment here.
Garnered major media attention.
2022 also brought numerous opportunities for me to address educational equality, learning loss, curriculum reform, and related topics in the media. Highlights included publishing an op-ed in TIME, appearing on CBS Mornings, being cited by Forbes, and getting quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
Deepened connections to libraries and librarians.
I’ve always been a huge library fan, even serving as treasurer of the Austin Public Library Foundation and chair of the University of Texas Libraries Advisory Council. But this year, I expanded my work to present professional development workshops and public programs for libraries—all with the goal of helping them enhance collections, resources, and staff training to better support kids’ reading development.
I launched my book at the Milwaukee Public Library; addressed 500 librarians as the keynote speaker at the Association of Small and Rural Libraries convention; and hosted a virtual workshop for the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Read by 4th and Read, Baby, Read initiatives.
Showed myself what I was capable of.
I have always known that I could write a book. The big questions were whether or not I would prioritize it and what sacrifices I was willing to make in other areas of my life to get it done. I’ll always remember 2022 as the year those questions were finally put to rest.
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In the same way that the key to a great morning is a good night’s sleep, a little-known trick to start your new year off right is to spend some quality time reviewing the year before. Yet all too often we skimp on reflection in favor of celebration amid the rush of holiday activities. We live in a go, go, go world, and the dash from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve seems to go by even faster than the other 365 days.
There’s no big advertising push nudging us to take stock in the way that there is to buy gifts and decorations all season long. There’s no Hallmark movie or card lauding the value of making this kind of list and checking it twice. So taking time out for a Family Year in Review is a practice we’ve got to instill on our own. We have to consciously pause and make time and space to close out the year.
It’s worth it, though! As Jana Aplin puts it, “We need to learn how to review the past year so that we’re ready to embrace the new year.”
And we can look to the corporate world, where annual reviews are standard, for some inspiration. For example, personal branding thinker William Arruda views the end-of-year review of career highlights as punctuation. He writes: “In our always-on, 24/7, 365 world, one day blurs into the next. Each week just follows the previous. Entire months go by without any acknowledgment that you’ve moved from May to June. It’s important to add a period or even an exclamation mark to each year, giving you an opportunity to start the new year with a fresh new chapter or at least a new sentence.”
Here are a few ideas for starting this new holiday-season tradition:
Pair the reflective with the festive.
This isn’t an annual corporate review, so no need to make it all business. Play some instrumental holiday music in the background if you like. Put out a tray of treats. Fill up mugs with warm toasty cider or hot chocolate. Talk about it over breakfast in your holiday PJs—whatever folds most easily into your existing routines.
Let everyone gather their thoughts.
It’s helpful for each person to review and think through the questions on their own first, and jot down some notes, before sharing thoughts aloud with the family. Kids of all ages learn through writing. They gain valuable experience organizing their ideas and planning how to express them.
Support littles by being responsive to any questions they have about words they want to use. Encourage those who can’t yet write words to draw a picture or scribble their part. Think of it as a mini-introduction to the notion that ideas in our minds can somehow be expressed and preserved on paper. A list of conversation starters (see below) might get older children and adults thinking while a simpler coloring sheet might best engage the littles. Have paper, pencils, markers, stickers, or whatever will engage your family most on hand.
Pass the mic.
After each person has a chance to ponder the family-year-in-review questions, open up discussion to craft your collective review. This exercise creates a wonderful opportunity to get everyone talking about the highs and lows of their year and also to think about the intersections with other relatives’ experiences.
One person can read the questions aloud one by one, giving each family member an opportunity to respond. Another person can be the scribe who records answers for the group or for little ones who aren’t yet writing. Everyone doesn’t have to answer every question, but the goal is to engage the whole family in the stroll down memory lane and capture the highlights of the year you shared. You can even make a game of it by passing around a karaoke mic or toy to give each family member the floor when it’s their turn to speak.
Ask Siri, Alexa, or the tech helper of your choice.
It’s most fun and casual to just chat about what immediately comes to mind for everyone, but you can bring a little tech into the mix to surface additional memories. Simply scrolling through your digital calendar may remind you of some trips or activities that may have slipped your mind but enhanced your year.
Plus, your phone’s camera roll will bring the little moments that add up to a life to the fore—the meals shared, first days of school, haircuts, and everyday adventures. Some of the apps you use may also give you an assist with this project by giving insight into which songs or podcasts you listened to most.
Save your review to look at again next year.
Talking through the year with your family can take conversation in some very interesting directions. Be sure to take notes, record video reflections, or memorialize the highlights in some other format, so you can revisit it in coming years.
Even if you never look back at the document or watch the video again, the process of listening, sharing, and curating your family’s greatest hits is powerful. And dwelling in that space of connection and gratitude is the perfect place from which to launch a new year. But chances are that your family will return to this keepsake of memories in the near or farther future.
- What were your favorite family memories?
- What one word best describes the year?
- Where did we visit?
- What was the biggest lesson you learned?
- What new friends did you make?
- What new hobbies or activities did you try?
- Who made a big impact on your life?
- What were the biggest moves, changes, or transitions?
- What books did you love?
- Where did you go that you would like to return to?
- What did you do that you never want to do again?
- What were you most grateful for?
- What was your biggest accomplishment?
- What was your best decision?
- What were some funny moments?
- What was your favorite show or movie?
- What was the song of the year for your family?
- What was your favorite family game and why?
- What were you most proud of?
- What’s a funny or memorable new word that you learned?
- What was the hardest or most challenging thing?
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A parent’s life is a full one, and the idea of attending a school board meeting may not make it onto many parents’ radars. But it should—whether you have kids who go to public school, have kids who may in the future, or even don’t have kids in the public schools.
School boards are the governing bodies for public school districts in the United States. How (and how well) they run those schools affects the students, the community, the future workforce and citizenry, and even neighborhood property values.
Attending a school board meeting allows you to impact decision-making on issues from what kids learn and read to how they stay safe and the use of school-owned properties. It lets you make your voice heard on policies that govern the schools and to ensure accountability of those in charge. And it gives you the chance to learn about issues facing your district and how you can help.
Impact Your Community’s Schools
The decisions your local school board makes will affect the students throughout their lives, as well as impacting the future of your community. A school board without input from a diverse cross-section of parents is hindered in its ability to make a cohesive vision for the children it serves.
The school board’s vision shapes the version of the world presented to the kids in your community and the preparation they get for living in it. It shapes what the children are taught—about history, inclusion, science, safety, and all kinds of topics. It shapes their experience—which books they use, the clothes they’re allowed to wear, and the food they’re offered at school. It even dictates how early students need to get up in the morning to make it to class.
What’s more, parental involvement in the educational system correlates with improved student achievement, according to numerous studies. Attending school board meetings is a key way to get involved and make a positive impact.
In addition to setting a vision for the local schools, the board is also responsible for selecting the district superintendent, who handles the day-to-day running of the district, including staffing, spending, and programs. The superintendent implements the decisions made by the school board and is responsible for developing procedures and policies that support the board’s goals. In many districts, public opinion—often garnered at school board meetings—is taken into consideration when appointing the superintendent.
Make Your Voice Heard
School board meetings generally end with a public comment period, when community members may make brief statements to the board. This is an opportunity to weigh in on the decisions the board faces, from hiring a district superintendent or budgeting to setting curriculum or schedules.
Parents with a concern that their child’s school is unable or unwilling to resolve often may address the board members during the public comment period. So may individuals with comments about programs or other topics, and even students themselves, who bring a valuable perspective. Each person gets just a few minutes to speak, so this method is best for quick comments. Be sure to check on the rules ahead of time: Speakers may be required to sign up at the beginning of the meeting or to log onto video meetings early to get a slot, for example.
Community members and groups who want to facilitate large changes in their district can request to get on the agenda for future meetings. Community members mobilizing around an idea have effected bigger-picture changes in various school districts, and communities working in conjunction with school boards have often made changes to school policy.
Ensure Accountability
An effective school board balances academic achievement with the health and wellbeing of the students and the community’s diverse beliefs and values. Having community members weigh in on the issues ensures that board members make informed decisions and understand the desires of their constituents.
School boards are made up of a handful of individuals from the communities they serve. They’re a small sample of people representing a much larger population. Most school board members are elected, and attending school board meetings will help you recognize which board members vote in line with your values, as well as let you hear from them directly on timely issues.
Only 10 percent of voters make their voices heard by voting in school board elections, yet these officials are responsible for shaping the next generation and the future of their communities. Knowing more about your candidates and the issues they support can help you feel more confident voting in the next election.
Participating in school board meetings also offers an avenue for holding district leadership and school staff accountable, as well as for ensuring transparency and community oversight of budgeting and other important topics.
Get Informed and Support Your Local Schools
You can learn a great deal of useful information by attending a school board meeting. In addition to getting to know the board members and candidates, you’ll become informed about all kinds of issues affecting your local schools and community.
Academic progress is the central responsibility of the school board, but board members also consider issues affecting the mental, physical, and emotional health of the district’s students. They make decisions that directly affect the broader neighborhood, too, from how to use non-school property that the district may own to safety decisions that affect the whole area.
Finally, you can learn about the greatest needs in your school district, where staff or students are struggling, and what kind of help your schools need to allow students to thrive. This will give you crucial knowledge about how you can support the district in educating the next generation and building a healthy, successful community.
How Can I Participate in Local School Board Meetings?
Each school district in the United States is governed by a small board, typically of about three to seven members. Most school districts select their school board members by public election, but in a few districts, mayors appoint board members.
Information about your district’s board should be posted on the school district website, including the locations and times of school board meetings. The majority of school board meetings are open to the public. (Just check ahead about any special requirements for attendance, such as bringing proof of vaccination or other rules.)
Parents and other community members who are unable to attend meetings in-person may be able to access the proceedings elsewhere. Meetings are often broadcast online or on local cable or radio channels. You can also look online to find agendas for upcoming meetings and minutes from past ones.
How do you support your local schools? Let us know!
Milwaukee Public Library’s beautiful Centennial Hall offered a stellar setting for the Reading for Our Lives launch party. An anchor institution in our community, the library lives its vision to build healthy families and vibrant neighborhoods every day by helping people read, learn, and connect. It offers a wonderful children’s book collection, countless online resources for families, and stellar local outreach programs—including the award-winning Ready to Read initiative, which gives hundreds of infants and toddlers the early literacy support and experiences they need. Celebrating the launch of a book about nurturing the next generation of readers in partnership with the library made perfect sense.
Milwaukee as a city was also a fitting location for the book launch because Wisconsin features the nation’s largest gap in academic success between black and white children. When I was a new mom more than a decade ago, news reports about disparities like these first sparked my curiosity about how reading unfolds and why so many black children never attained the levels of literacy they needed to thrive. I sought answers by scouring academic literature, reading curricula, state learning standards, government reports. I talked to teachers, tutors, and parents in the thick of raising readers, as well as researchers immersed in exploring its underpinnings. I served on school, library, and literacy nonprofit boards; volunteered in early-learning programs; and developed databases of research and instructional techniques. I learned a great deal, much of which I share in Reading for Our Lives to help all parents do what we can to foster reading development.
At the launch party, I was heartened to see the room filled with parents, teachers, librarians, and community members of all stripes, united around the idea of supporting families and the next generation of readers in their care. The program included introductory remarks from Milwaukee Public Library Director Joan Johnson and Boswell Books owner Daniel Goldin, a reading by me from the book, an inspiring and informative conversation with Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, audience questions, and a book signing. Attendees enjoyed the gorgeous festive atmosphere, food, flowers, and decor elements curated by Cheri Davis of Cheri Denise Events. I hope the occasion inspired fresh engagement, collaboration, and enthusiasm for helping children and families thrive from day one. More than anywhere in this nation, Milwaukee desperately needs more people to understand the urgency of literacy and the power we all hold to foster it.
Five Memorable Quotes from the Reading for Our Lives Launch Party
The science that I discuss in the book reveals that those early interactions are so critical. That the back-and-forth exchanges with infants and toddlers really do have a direct impact on their literacy and life trajectories years down the road, if we can simultaneously be present in the moment and also recognize that we have this enormous power to impact the future. —Maya Payne Smart
There’s so much growth and development and connections that are formed in those early years. And the mechanism for those connections is nurturing relationships with caregivers. Literally by talking to a baby, asking questions—even if they’re answering with coos and babbles and not words yet, it’s still a really powerful interaction—that’s how they grow and learn. —Maya Payne Smart
I think parenting of infants, or probably all kids on some level, is a lot like improv. You’re just trying to work with what you get there. —Dr. Dipesh Navsaria
One of the things that I love to do with four- and five-year-olds is to show them the cover of [a] book and ask them how many letters they can identify. And the difference between two children of the same age, one who’s been exposed to all these things and one who hasn’t, in terms of letter recognition is astounding. —Dr. Dipesh Navsaria
What I tell parents is we—and this is something I struggle with as well—we have to be mindful of our own technology use, because we’re the ones that are modeling it for kids. Every time you reach for that phone, create a little mindfulness practice of taking a breath, asking yourself, do you even need to touch your phone in that moment? Because if we are not distracted, we can better engage with the child and we can be the thing that stops them from screaming in the restaurant or whatever the situation is. I think it all starts with us, really. —Maya Payne Smart
The Women’s Storybook Project of Texas passed out small packs of tissues as table favors at its latest fundraiser, because there’s seldom a dry eye in the house when the organization describes how it fosters family reading across time, distance, and incarceration. The nonprofit serves children whose mothers are in prison by sending books to the kids, along with recordings of their mothers reading them aloud.
The effort, fueled by a small staff and a corps of volunteers, strengthens the mother-child connection and motivates moms to stay out of prison after their release. I spoke with Jill Gonzalez, executive director of Women’s Storybook Project of Texas, about how it works, why it’s a difference-maker for kids, families, and society—and why we should all treasure the chance to read to kids.
Maya Smart: Hi Jill, thanks so much for being with me today. I'm so excited to chat about Women's Storybook Project, an organization that's near and dear to my heart from the years I spent in Austin, when I had the opportunity to meet you and also to attend some of your fundraising events. I just wanted to start by talking about how important reading aloud with children, and to children, is for all families. I know sometimes, among my readership, parents can feel like it's a chore, they get tired at the end of a long day and don't really appreciate it for the wonderful opportunity that it is to connect, spend time, nurture relationships, and make memories. I know that is not the case with the women who participate in your program. They're not taking the opportunity to read to children for granted. Can you tell us a bit about the organization and the women it serves?
Jill Gonzalez:
Sure. Thank you. I’m really happy to be here today. At the Women’s Storybook Project of Texas, we work for the children of incarcerated mothers. We want to be able to connect them to their mothers through the power of literature, because Texas is a really big state and it’s hard to visit. If your mom is incarcerated, you don’t get to talk to her often or visit her often.
It’s imperative that we keep families connected. The research shows that Mom’s voice is as strong as an embrace and that families who stay connected, actually, the moms have a better chance of staying out of prison when they leave.
So, we have volunteers who go to prisons every month, and moms apply for our program. If they have 60 days’ good behavior, children between the ages of 0 and 14, and permission to contact them, then they’re offered the program. Every month they come in, we talk about reading and the importance of reading, and then they choose a book for each child.
Once they’ve chosen the book, they have reading time, and we record them on a little digital recorder. When they’re done, they can write a message of love in the book, and they can also give it on the recording. We send those books and the recording to the child every month.
Maya Smart: I love what you said about emphasizing that the program is for children, because the name of the organization obviously has women in it, and you're thinking about the mothers who are incarcerated, but the children, of course, have committed no crime, yet they're deprived of this critical relationship with their mothers. Can you talk about the age range that you serve and the importance of that connection, whether a child is 2 or 12?
Jill Gonzalez:
Sure. There are some mothers who even give birth while they’re in prison. So, we’re reading to babies very young. From 0, 2 months, 6 months, 9 months, all the way until 14. We used to serve up to age 12 and the mothers requested, “please let us keep reading, because our children really need us right now.” So now we go through 14.
And I can’t overemphasize the importance of Mom’s voice and the ability to hear a favorite story, whether it’s Mom’s favorite or the child’s favorite. Because we hear all the time from moms, “I’ve never gotten to read to my child.” Maybe they weren’t able to before they were incarcerated. Or “I haven’t read to my child in five years.”
Mom records four stories, one each time. But the child can listen to that book a hundred times. So, hearing Mom is very emotional, but it’s a message of love. It’s someone saying “I love you” through a book.
And that’s something that I know parents get tired, and I know they memorize the books and the kids tell them when they’ve skipped a page, but it’s such a gift to be able to share books with your children, because every book makes a new memory, and it’s natural for them to get stuck on one.
Maya Smart: Talk a bit also about the caregivers, the people who are living day in and day out with the child whose parent is incarcerated. Have you heard from them about the power of the program, and do you know if it influences the frequency or interest in reading among the caregivers?
Jill Gonzalez:
We have heard from caregivers. Caregivers can be aunts and uncles, grandparents, foster parents, whoever happens to have been chosen to be the caregiver. This often gives the caregiver a little break.
The caregiver hopefully is reading to that child every night. And, even if they’re not able to, when Mom sends a book and a tape, or a book and a recording, it’s a chance for the child to hear a story that they love or that Mom loves, and a chance for the [grandparent] caregiver to also hear their sons or—sorry, their daughter’s voice. That can change relationships, because there’s been a lot of hurt when someone has been incarcerated. Sometimes those relationships are damaged.
We’ve gotten emails and letters from caregivers that say, “It really touched my heart when my daughter recorded for my grandkids, because I didn’t think she cared. Yes, we talk to her, but this really shows she cares. That helped us to start calling her or helped us to start visiting.” It can change relationships, knowing that someone is trying to do something good for their family.
Maya Smart: The moms have to go through a process. You touched on it a bit earlier, but could you explain more about how the moms sign up for the program—what they have to do?
Jill Gonzalez:
Sure. So moms, they have an application and they fill out the application. On the application, they have to state that they’ve had 90 days case-free, or good behavior.
Then we check the children, because Mom may have children from, you know, 7 to 18, but she’s not able to read to the 18-year-old, but she’ll read to the 7 and 9-year-old. So, we check the ages of the children, and then we’re very careful to make sure that there’s no CPS cases involved, that none of the children have been a victim, because we don’t want to cause any trauma to a child that’s already been through trauma. So, it is a program that moms have to work to get into.
Maya Smart: Can you talk about the benefits of the program? You've talked about the benefits for the child, for the mom, for the caregivers. But if we take a step back and look bigger-picture at all of society, how does maintaining that mother-child relationship affect recidivism and other things?
Jill Gonzalez:
When you have the ability to affect the relationship between a mother and a child, it’s hugely important that you take it. Whether it’s a field trip to see parents, which some other nonprofits do, or the opportunity to bond with books. Whatever gives you a chance to make that relationship stronger and better is going to serve the whole world.
We know that in mass incarceration, many times the offenses are trauma-related or addiction-related. The crimes that women have been accused of are not against their children. There are many views on the incarceration of so many women, but it’s really paramount that we try and help the women who are already incarcerated stay in contact with their families and keep those relationships strong.
How better to do that [than] through a book? Because sometimes when you’re talking to a child, and you know this, [it’s like] “Hi, how was your day?” “Fine.” [laughs] There’s nothing to talk about.
Well, when you have a book, it gives you something to talk about. We have a large instance of when Mom comes the first time, she often picks a nostalgic book, something that she’s already read to the kids, whether it be Goodnight Moon or Skippyjon Jones, or Full, Full, Full of Love. She’s already read the book to the child, but she’ll send it and read it again to reestablish that connection.
And the kids respond and they say, “Hey Mom, it was really great, I loved the book. Do they have any Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Or do they have any Junie B. Jones?” Or just things that the child is interested. But that’s just as important, because the child is being heard, and that’s super important, because I think children of incarceration are generally not heard.
Maya Smart: Can you talk about some of the books that are popular? You mentioned nostalgic titles. I think the title of one book was Invisible String when you did a fundraiser. Can you describe that book and the special place that it has for families?
Jill Gonzalez:
There are quite a few books now that are about the mom-child connection. Even back to Runaway Bunny, was a classic about kids. My nephew’s favorite was I Love You Stinky Face. It was, “I’ll always love you no matter what, even if you have a stinky face or even if you’re a monster.”
Our book—The Invisible String is our signature book. It’s by Patrice Karst. Patrice is an author who lives in California, and she wrote this book for her son. The story is, essentially, there are two children who wake up during a storm and they go out to their mother, and they say they’re scared. She says, “Well, you don’t ever have to be scared, because we’re always connected.”
And she explains to them—and she takes her fingers and shows them the invisible string—that “you and I are always connected, because the invisible string is love.” And she makes the heart, and it’s beautiful. They start asking questions, “Well, does it go with me when I go to school, and does it go with me when I’m visiting someone else? And can it reach grandma?”
It’s a lovely, lovely book about connection and really makes the point for moms that “it doesn’t matter where I am, doesn’t matter where you are, we’re still connected by love.”
Maya Smart: Another book that I know has been mentioned at a fundraiser of yours is Prison Baby. So that one is a memoir. Tell us a bit about [the author] and her story.
Jill Gonzalez:
Sure. We were very privileged this year to have Deborah Jiang-Stein, from Minneapolis, come and speak at our luncheon. Deborah was born in prison, and she has written a memoir called Prison Baby and explains her journey.
She actually said at the luncheon, she spent the first year in her mom’s cell, and some people think that’s tragic, but she thought, “Well, what a wonderful gift, because I had a full year of bonding and my mom telling me stories and reading me books.”
Then, of course, she couldn’t stay and she was adopted out. She didn’t know she was adopted until her preteen years. Then she found paperwork that explained this to her, and that caused a lot of trauma. Because she knew she was different from the other kids, but she didn’t know why. Then, when she found out, she felt ashamed, and she wasn’t vocal enough to talk to anybody about it. So that caused her own trauma.
As she realized, she said she had a family that was very supportive with books and the arts, but she wasn’t ready for the care that they wanted to give her. She went through high school and college exploration and really came to a turning point in her life, when she decided she wanted to be positive and do something positive with her life.
So she started The unPrison Project, and she speaks to incarcerated women about hope. That there’s always hope, and there’s always another chance. You’re not a failure just because you have a sentence, and you are not your sentence. It was very powerful. The book is very powerful, but it was very powerful to hear her speak in person, because she says, “I am a story of hope, I’m also a story of devastation, but the more important story is the story of hope.”
Maya Smart: Can you tell viewers how they can support your work, how they can participate in spreading that message of hope to children and to families and to mothers?
Jill Gonzalez:
The best way you can support literacy is to read to your children even when you’re tired, even when you’ve had a bad day. Take the five minutes. Maybe you have to say, “No, we’re not reading three books tonight, it’s just one,” but make sure you read one.
And keep it up, don’t stop when they’re seven, don’t stop when they start reading, because they can understand so much more than they can read. You can read your seven-year-old a book on a fourth-grade level, and they’ll love it, because they’re listening and not reading.
How you can support Women’s Storybook Project—we serve women in Texas because we are in Texas, but the children are all over the country and sometimes all over the world. Last year we served, I believe, 110 counties in Texas and 18 different states.
We take financial donations. We love to have volunteers sign up. If you’re available in Texas, that’s great. And if you’re not, we have remote opportunities for volunteers, whether that be in database management or marketing and communications or curriculum development.
We’d love to have you get involved, because the whole process of connecting children and families through books to their parents is just so life-giving, and there’s nothing bad about it.
Maya Smart: Well, thank you so much for your time, Jill, it was great to connect.
Jill Gonzalez:
Thank you. Thank you so much, have a great day.
Recommended Reads
Here are titles Jill Gonzalez noted during her interview with Maya.
Picture Books that Support Mother-Child Connection:
Invisible String by Patrice Karst, illustrated by Geoff Stevenson
Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd
I Love You Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt, illustrated by Cyd Moore
Teen/Young Adult:
As a parent, the time you spend with your child—reading aloud, chatting, and interacting in countless ways—is pivotal in helping them learn to read and thrive as a reader, writer, and thinker. From teaching your child the alphabet to playing rhyming games, you instill crucial knowledge and skills through fun, playful time together. And the best part is that it all builds your relationship, too—and can even help you feel happier and more fulfilled.
That’s why we’ve developed Smart Story Time, a monthly feature designed to make it easy to find new ways to read and connect with young kids around literacy. Each month, we’ll be sharing a mix of featured reads and literacy activities. Expect fun seasonal reading recommendations that are ideal for reading aloud, complemented with activity tutorials and free printables for an all-out story time experience with your little one.
Enjoy!
Got recommendations or requests for a future Smart Story Time? Message Maya!
Featured Books for Kids: Martin Luther King, Jr. Picture Books
There are hundreds of books dedicated to exploring the life, dreams, and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. So how’s a parent to choose which books are best to explore with their child?
Read Maya’s article, Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. with These 9 Thought-Provoking Books, to get tips for finding the right-fit book to deepen your child’s knowledge of King’s legacy and the American history it so vividly illustrates. You’ll also find specifics about some great kids’ reads. Or check out one of these top picks:
- Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Doreen Rappaport
- A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein
Featured Reading Activity: Word Snowmen
Whether it snows in your area or not, nothing says winter like making snowpeople! So for this month’s featured activity, we’re making paper “snow” families that teach kids reading skills and make cute decorations for your home. All you need for this easy activity is 15 minutes and some basic materials.
Early childhood educator Chrysta Naron created this cute winter craft to teach kids word families—groups of rhyming words that share the same ending (both the spelling and pronunciation). For example, the “-op” rhyming word family includes words like hop, top, and pop. Word families help kids learn spelling patterns that make it easier to read and write new, related words.
Activity: Make Word Family Snowmen
Book Pairing: Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and illustrated by Mark Buehner, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin, Snowballs by Lois Ehlert, or any favorite snow-related book. Look for word families as you read!
Featured Printables: Family Reading Inspiration
If any of your New Year’s resolutions involve encouraging more reading around your house or building more connection and joyful special memories with your kids, you’ll want to check out these special printables designed to inspire family reading.
(Note: If you’re not a member already, you’ll need to sign up for the FREE MayaSmart.com VIP Vault of resources for Very Intentional Parents. Don’t worry—it takes two minutes and doesn’t cost a cent!)
Family Reading Journal: Create a sweet record of what your kids love to read with this free printable reading journal. Inside, you’ll find a cover ready for coloring and journal pages with room to jot down your reflections, note favorite quotes, and rate each book.
Inspirational Bookmarks: Celebrate the power of reading with 10 free printable bookmarks, each featuring a parent-author reflecting on the joys of family reading.
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Welcome! It’s lovely to have you here. I’m Maya, an author, literacy advocate, and mom. On this site, I publish articles, advice, book recommendations, and activities for busy parents. Through it all, my goal is to help parents like you feel equipped and confident to support your children in reading. Let’s start by understanding what you bring to the effort—your unique superpower.
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