The Paperback Edition of Reading for Our Lives Is Here—And It Couldn’t Come at a More Critical Time

I’m so excited to announce the updated paperback edition of Reading for Our Lives! This new version’s lower price point makes it more affordable for everyone. That plus its lower shipping cost also makes it particularly appealing for bulk purchases by birth-to-three programs, early childhood centers, literacy nonprofits, and schools looking to empower parents as their children’s first and most powerful literacy leaders.

And let’s be honest. This book couldn’t be coming at a more urgent moment.

The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress confirm what many of us feared: children’s reading skills have reached new lows post-COVID, with the most vulnerable students seeing the steepest declines. The reading crisis is still here, and it’s getting worse. Yes, factors like screen time and school absence play a role, but the deeper problem is long-standing—too many children enter school with weak language and literacy foundations.

The truth is, reading struggles don’t start in the classroom. They begin long before, in the earliest years of a child’s life, when brain development, oral-language experiences, and alphabetic knowledge set the foundation for learning. Many of today’s highest-achieving students didn’t succeed solely because of classroom instruction. They started out ahead because their parents nurtured language, vocabulary, and cognitive development from birth.

This doesn’t mean schools are off the hook. Far from it. Schools must provide the systematic, explicit phonics instruction that most children need to become proficient readers. But we can’t expect teachers to perform miracles when large numbers of students show up far behind—lacking essential vocabulary, alphabet knowledge, and book familiarity, often with developmental delays nobody caught. That’s mission impossible.

We have to be proactive. We have to lay a strong foundation early and then, once kids are in school, intervene aggressively with high-dosage, high-quality tutoring when gaps emerge.

That’s exactly why I wrote Reading for Our Lives—to lay out in clear, actionable terms exactly what parents and early caregivers need to do in the first years to prepare kids for reading. It’s also why I revised this new paperback edition to make it even easier for parents, educators, and community leaders to glean impactful ways to take action after reading it.

What’s New in the Paperback Edition?

The heart of the book remains the same—the message that parents are their children’s first and most powerful literacy leaders. The paperback edition streamlines and sharpens the content, making it even more practical and simple for parents to lean into that role.

Here’s what’s new:

• Updated Research & Stats: The latest data on reading, literacy, and screen time show why early literacy action is even more urgent today than when the book first came out.
• More Action: Exercises have been streamlined and language simplified for quick wins that build both parent confidence and child engagement, while journal prompts transform parent reflection into concrete action steps.
• More Real-Parent Voices: New parent stories and parent-child dialogues provide social proof that these strategies work—and remind parents they’re not alone in their struggles or successes.
• A Fresh Look: The cover now features a real-life moment—a young girl flipping through a book—replacing the original illustrated silhouettes.
• A Clearer, Parent-Focused Title: The subtitle now reads The Urgency of Early Literacy and the Action Plan to Help Your Child, making it clear that this book is for parents and that it’s useful for kids even beyond the age of six. (The previous subtitle was A Literacy Action Plan from Birth to Six.)
• A New Financial Mindset: A chapter on literacy spending reframes “budgeting” as “investing,” reinforcing the message that every book, resource, and reading habit is a strategic, long-term investment in our children’s future.
• A Smarter Flow: A reorganization of some of the material makes the flow of the book easier to follow—now, what to teach comes before how to teach, making the book more intuitive to follow.

The Time to Act is Now

We don’t have years to wait for policy changes or new educational trends to fix this. We need millions more parents to understand how to build language and literacy skills at home—starting at birth—and how to advocate for adequate reading instruction once their children enter school.

This updated edition of Reading for Our Lives gives an action plan for that work that’s clearer, more accessible, and more actionable than ever. Whether you pick up the original hardcover or the new paperback, though, the core framework remains the same. So anyone reading either edition can still join the conversation with the same essential knowledge and key takeaways.

Let’s get serious. Let’s be proactive. Let’s build a generation of strong, confident readers—starting right now.