RAR #138: How to Choose Books for Your Kids

Sarah Mackenzie (00:12): You are listening to the Read Aloud Revival podcast. This is the podcast that helps you make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books. (00:29): Hey, hey, hey. Sarah Mackenzie here. You've got episode 138 of the Read Aloud Revival podcast. It's October, so of course it means it's time for those Anne of Green Gables quotes about being glad to live in a world with Octobers to just be fluttering around social media, right? We're digging out our sweaters and our wool socks. Oh my gosh, I love this time of year. One of the things I love best about this time of year is that it is a spectacular time for picture books. There are so many wonderful picture books for this season and if you haven't seen it, you want to check out our newly updated list of favorite picture books for October. You can see the list and grab a free printable version in today's show notes. Those are at readaloudrevival.com/138 or even easier, you can just text the word October to the number 33777 and we'll send it to you. (01:28): Okay. How do you choose books for your kids? What makes a good book, and how do you quickly spot one when you're in the library or at the bookstore? I'll tell you, I have a vivid memory of walking into the public library when Audrey, my oldest daughter was one. She's now almost 18. She was one year old and I was completely overwhelmed at the children's department of my library. I was looking over the sea of picture books and I knew that some of them were better than others. I knew that because I would sit on the ground, we'd bring books home from the library or people would give them to us as gifts and the books would either bore me to tears, some of them would bore me to tears or make me think like, "How is this a book?" Right? And others would be so delightful to read over and over and over again. I would enjoy them as much as she did. (02:16): I really didn't have any idea, though, of figuring out which was which. And I think that challenge actually gets exacerbated somewhat when our kids get older because they start reading more and faster than we do, especially as they get into those tween and teen years. If they're voracious readers, they're reading more books, probably, than we are, and there's a problem there, too, of how do I make sure I'm stocking my kids with the best books for them? (02:41): Then we have another piece of the challenge of how do I choose books for my kids and that it can be hard to find the right book for the right kid. If you have a child who doesn't love reading - we've all been there - I'll bet a large part of that is they just haven't found quite the right book yet. So then we get to be literary matchmakers, so to speak. You know, pairing the book that will stir up our child's imagination and turn them into readers with the right child. So how do we do it? How do we know a good book when we see one? How do we successfully become our child's literary matchmaker? That's what we're going to talk about on today's show. (03:15): Today's show is actually an excerpt from my book, The Read Aloud Family. The very kind and generous folks at Zondervan gave me permission to play chapter nine of the audio version of the book in its entirety for you here on the show. This is great because it's where I'm going to walk you through what a good book is, how to spot one using my very simple three question test. It's the same test I use every time I'm at the library or bookstore or someone hands me a book for the first time and I'm deciding if it deserves a place on my to-read stack or my kids' to-read stack. I use a simple three question test to make that decision. I also walk you through, in this chapter, a few really important principles for being your child's literary matchmaker. Spoiler alert: it has a lot more to do with your actual kids than with the books themselves and we're going to talk about that. (04:04): We're going to dive right in. If you want more where this came from, you can grab the book in print, on your e-reader, and if you enjoy listening to books better than reading them. That's actually my preference. I'm a voracious reader with my eyes, but even more than that, I love listening to a good audio book. You can get the audio version of this book. You'll find it pretty much anywhere you like to get your audio books. Actually, we were nominated for a few audio book awards with the production of this one, which is pretty fun. I was kind of proud of that, I'll put links in the show notes to where you can find The Read Aloud Family and here we go. We're going to read chapter nine of The Read Aloud Family: Making Meaningful And Lasting Connections With Your Kids. (05:03): Chapter Nine: Become A Literary Matchmaker. I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last. CS Lewis on three ways of writing for children. When my oldest three children were small, I couldn't wait to read middle grade novels to them. I enjoyed reading picture books, but they weren't the literature that formed me as a reader in my own youth. Books by Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl and Lois Lowry were what sparked my own childhood imagination and turned me into a lifelong book lover. I couldn't wait to introduce these favorite stories and characters to my own kids. In my enthusiasm, I launched into our first middle grade novel a little prematurely when my oldest kids were about five and three. I decided to start with the gold standard in children's literature, and what other than Little House In The Big Woods would do? (06:03): We struggled. My kids didn't follow the storyline or the long descriptive passages. I found myself bored and, in the end, I felt like a failure because here we were, reading our first middle grade novel, a literary gem, no less, and we were having a miserable time. What I discovered after that disheartening experience was that not all books are created equal when it comes to reading aloud. I hadn't yet developed my own read aloud skills well enough to deliver those long descriptive passages in an interesting way. My girls hadn't had much practice painting pictures in their minds and following along with longer narrative. It ended up being a great disappointment and discouragement to me at a rather critical point in our read aloud journey. Laura Ingalls Wilder has, of course, written some of the best children's books ever published, and since that first attempt, we have gone on to read her entire series three times together as a family, mostly through the audio version narrated by Terry Jones. (07:03): But there was an important lesson for me in that first failure. Some books read aloud better than others and some books, even if they are read aloud well, are better saved for the future. I also learned that my own delight, or lack thereof, plays an important role in my family's read aloud life. We want our kids to read because they love to, not just because they can. We know they won't read much in their free time unless they enjoy the act of reading itself, and so we hope they'll develop a love of books out of sheer delight. That joy, of course, starts with the books themselves. In this chapter, we'll set out with the one goal in mind: how to become our own family's literary matchmaker. (07:46): The goal of a literary matchmaker. Listeners to the What Should I Read Next podcast will recognize the idea of literary matchmaking right away. Anne Bogle, the founder and host of the podcast, practices it regularly with her audience. Anne's method is simple. She asks the show's guest to list a few books they love, one they didn't, and what they've been reading lately. Using that information, she recommends three books the guests would likely enjoy. What if we became literary matchmakers for our own children? What if they knew they could come to us to find enjoyable books? Not what they should read next to improve themselves, graduate to the next reading level, or meet some academic requirement, but what they should read based on their enchantment with the written word? After all, real adult readers, the kind who read for pleasure in their own free time, of their own free will, read what brings them joy. (08:43): Where to start. When it comes to choosing great books for your family, the first step is simply knowing where to start. You may feel under-prepared to choose rich, excellent books. You aren't swimming in free time either, so pre-reading isn't usually an option. Shortly after that first reading of The Read Aloud Handbook, when Audrey was one, I hoisted her on my hip and descended the long, shallow stairs leading into the public library in the town where we lived. "Today," I told myself, getting a better grip on the empty library bag and pushing hair out of my eyes with the back of my wrist, "We will get books." I was full of zeal and determination, growing tired of endless rounds of Goodnight Moon and Mr. Brown, Can You? The library could solve this, I was certain. I frequented the library often as a child and spent whole afternoons panning the stacks, wondering if it might be possible for me to read every single book in the library's collection. Now I felt out of practice. It had been years since I'd stepped foot in the library. (09:47): The glass doors slid open. I adjusted Audrey on my hip and breathed in the slightly musty and unmistakable scent of used books. We made our way to the children's department where I gazed around the room, eyeing the worn and faded bean bag chairs, low desks with ivory mouses and giant headphones. I saw picture books, chapter books, and front-facing shelves crammed with easy readers. Oversized stuffed versions of Arnold Lobel's fictional frog and toad were posed over the front desk and a cardboard cutout of Juni B. Jones declared boldly, "Reading rules." As I scanned row upon row of picture books, their skinny spines jammed one next to the other on what seemed like a million shelves, it hit me. I had no idea where to start. (10:36): There are some things you feel you should just know, even as a brand new mother. Standing there at the library, feelings of incompetence and inadequacy washed over me. Audrey squirmed in my arms and I set her down, feeling my resolve to bring home a library hall fade away. "Surely," I thought, "Some of these books are better than others". When we read together at home, books by Jan Brett or Tomie dePaola left me thoroughly enjoying myself, the cadence of the text and beauty of the illustrations carrying us through each story, leaving us a little happier to be alive at the end of each book. Then there were the others. The kind I read quickly, skipping entire paragraphs or pages when I could get away with it. They were drudgery to read and bored me to death. What was the difference? What made one book so engaging and the other so dull? And how would I be able to tell which was which and a sea of choices unless I had the time and wherewithal to pre-read them? (11:32): What is a good book? Before we explore the principles of literary matchmaking, let's talk about what a good book is and what it does. You can become a bonafide book maven in your own right if you can learn to look for two important characteristics in the books you encounter. Good books appeal to all ages. First, a good book appeals to the reader regardless of age. This is the most important thing you should know about good books written for children. They appeal equally to grownups. An adult can find herself lost in Narnia as well as any child and when a parent thinks a book is dumb or trite, there is a good chance that the child hearing this story came to the same conclusion long before. (12:15): I remember hearing a mother recount taking her son to the local coffee shop for a read aloud session of one of the Harry Potter books. They sat at an outdoor table and read as cars rolled by and starlings pecked at the ground. As they were whisked off to Hogwarts, they were joined by a complete stranger: a grown man in a bicycle helmet who had just arrived at the coffee shop for his daily macchiato. As he parked his bike and snapped the lock to the rack, he heard the mother reading. "Don't mind me," He said to them, smiling and settling in at an adjacent table. "I just want to hear what happens next." (12:49): Sarah, a Read Aloud Revival podcast listener, said she put on The Mysterious Howling, book one of Maryrose Wood's The Incorrigible Children Of Ashton Place series, for a long car ride during her family's summer camping trip. "We were having such a good time laughing with the children and guessing at what would happen next, that when we arrived at the camp ground, we found ourselves wanting to drive just a little bit more," She said. "We kept finding excuses to sneak back into the car: to find the visitor center, to find the little beach farthest away from our campsite." She laughed. "We don't remember much about the campsite itself, but we all remember that story." (13:27): This is what a good book does. It grabs hold of all of us, adults and kids alike, and doesn't let go. It is equally enjoyable no matter our age, not accounting for taste, which we'll discuss in just a moment. Good books fill the reader with hope. (13:43): Second, a good book leaves you more grateful to be alive. You close the final pages of the book a little breathless, a little more in awe of the great and glorious world. The book may be tragic, Bridge To Terabithia by Catherine Patterson, moving, A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park or goofy and nonsensical, The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. Yet it leaves you with a feeling you find difficult to express. Amazement at the world, an awe for life, a gratitude for humanity in its quirkiness, its messiness, its vitality. (14:19): A book that fails to leave the reader with hope has neglected its most important role: to help the reader see the world afresh. Funny books do it. Sad books do it. Heartrending or harrowing or lighthearted books do it. They leave us with new vision. They allow us to view the seemingly mundane world around us and the people in it with new eyes. A book should fill us with hope, even in the midst of bone-rattling thrill or heart-wrenching sorrow. (14:49): Book lists are training wheels. That day in the library, I sat with Audrey on a low plastic chair, reading through a stack of board books someone had left on a kid-sized table. They were boring, not worth bringing home, so I hoisted Audrey onto my hip and headed back to our car empty-handed. I knew what I needed. I needed that book list at the back of The Read Aloud Handbook. As you set out to become your family's literary matchmaker, book lists are your training wheels. They are invaluable to the parent who is learning how to put good books into the hands of her children. To spur a love of reading and fill a home with the best books that can be found, think of a good book list as a sturdy set of training wheels. It'll help you ride successfully before you can do it on your own. It'll become a trusted companion to steer you in the right direction. In the third part of this book, you'll find a book list that I hope will become a trusted companion on your own read aloud journey. I've read every single book on the list, many of them out loud, but you'll also find wonderful recommendations in books like Honey For A Child's Heart and Give Your Child The World. Books where the authors have done the hard work of pre-reading, thinking through, sorting, categorizing, and eventually, recommending. (16:05): A good book list is my love language and if you're ready for a more nuanced list than the one included here, you can find a collection of all my book lists at readaloudrevival.com. Book lists, of course, are always created by a person with unique literary taste and you don't want to supplant your own opinions and tastes for a book list, no matter how reputable it might be. Use book lists as your training wheels, but once you've acquired enough speed and ability to ride on your own, you can rely on your God-given intuition and the three question test, up next, to decide which books should make it onto your own family's unique list of favorites. No book list can be the be all and end all because just as the members of your family are singular and unique, so will your book choices be. Your list should reflect the beautiful quirks, likes and dislikes of the people in your family. (17:01): How to choose books without a book list: the three question test. What if you don't have a book list handy? Or what if you are trying to decide on a book you haven't seen on any trusted book list? What to do then? It's easy to conduct the three question test. First, flip open the book to the first few pages and read. You'll need to make use of the sample if you're perusing online. Read a few paragraphs or a few pages if it's a picture book. Now skip to further inside the book, maybe one third or halfway through, and read a few more paragraphs or pages. This shouldn't take you longer than a few minutes. You just want a taste. Then quickly answer these three questions. (17:40): One, images. Can you picture this scene in your mind's eye? What you're looking for is text capable of transporting you inside the stories so that you can see it vividly in your own imagination. If the book is illustrated, notice if the images capture you and whether or not you want to look at them just a bit longer than necessary. Two, vocabulary. Do the word choices seem rich and varied? Avoid books with overly simplified or dumbed down language. The best read alouds contain a wide range of words, the kind of words you want to speak out loud. Three, curiosity. Are you interested in finding out what happens next? The book probably won't be worth reading if you answer this question with a no. (18:26): A book doesn't need to pass all three questions to qualify as worthwhile reading. Often it will only pass two of the three questions, and that is usually good enough. For example, a book containing no text, as in Peggy Rathmann's hilarious wordless picture book, Good Night Gorilla or Alexandra Day's Carl books can still pass the test with captivating images and peaking your curiosity. Sometimes a book's vocabulary is simplified to accommodate beginning readers, as in the case of books by Mo Willems or Sam and Dave Dig A Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen. Those books contain rich illustrations and definitely caused readers to wonder what will happen next. (19:07): The three question test isn't fail-proof, but it's an effective and reliable way to decide if a book is worth a place in your family read aloud pile or in your child's TBR stack. Next time you're poking through the used book sale or clicking through Amazon, put those potential book purchases through the three question test and see if it doesn't help you make better choices. Remember, we're looking for vivid imagery, rich language, and something that peaks your curiosity. (19:34): Principles for literary matchmaking. We've covered the two characteristics of a good book, the value of lists as training wheels, and how to use the three question test. There are just a few more helpful principles to keep in mind as you play the part of literary matchmaker for your family. Know when to ditch the book. Just as we all have a unique palette and preference for certain foods, we also have a unique palette for books. It's okay for your family to love something another book lover you admire doesn't enjoy. Likewise, it's okay to get bored by something your favorite bookish friend positively adores. Jim Weiss, acclaimed storyteller and narrator of hundreds of audio stories through Great Hall Productions, once told me that the first and cardinal rule of storytelling is that you, the storyteller, must love the story too. "The first rule, the unbreakable rule," He said, "Is you only tell or read stories aloud that you love yourself. If you try to tell a story you don't like, your kids pick up on that and it will fall flat." (20:38): This is your permission slip, then, to ditch a book that isn't lighting you up, even if it's on all the book lists. Even if your best friend tells you it's the best book she's ever read. With so many wonderful stories in the world, you want your family's read aloud time to be marked with warm and pleasant memories, not overshadowed by a sense of obligation and frustration. I remember ditching the Hobbit when I found myself avoiding read aloud time. It turns out Rob Inglis does a far better job of reading the book on audio anyway, and my kids still received the countless benefits of hearing Tolkien read aloud. I got to move on to reading aloud Lois Lowry's Number The Stars, which I had been wanting to do for some time. (21:21): I recently tried reading aloud the award-winning book The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin to my three oldest kids. The book was interesting and had a compelling plot, but the quantity of characters and frequent scene changes made it difficult to read aloud. One of my kids was frequently lost, interjecting questions constantly just to keep the facts straight in his own mind. I finally realized I was not looking forward to read aloud time at all, so I let the kids who wanted to finish reading it either read it on their own or listen to the story as an audio book. For our read aloud time, we switched to something else. (21:55): Several people have named the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody as their all time favorite. I read the entire first book aloud to my kids, but found myself counting pages and eyeing my watch through every renal aloud session. When we finished it, I told them if they'd like to read the rest of the series, I'd be happy to get them as audio books, but I wouldn't be reading them aloud. I just wasn't enjoying it enough to continue. We simply won't all love the same books, and isn't it wonderful that we are all made just a bit different from one another? Don't fight this. Celebrate it. Ditch what isn't working for your read aloud time. Delight matters a lot when it comes to sharing books with your kids. (22:35): Dig around for the right jelly bean. Laura Martin, author of the Edge Of Extinction books, which my kids and I find impossible to put down, once said that choosing the right book is like searching for a good jelly bean. Laura said, "There's no such thing as a kid who doesn't like reading." She recounted her many experiences as a seventh grade teacher and the thrilling challenge of helping kids who didn't enjoy reading fall in love with books. Often her students assumed that they didn't like reading, but that was only because they hadn't found the right book. (23:05): It was like tasting a licorice jelly bean and then deciding you don't like jelly beans at all, but licorice is only one flavor. No matter who you are, there's a flavor you'll love. You just need to find the right one. Don't give up, then. If you're having a frustrating read a lot experience, it doesn't mean that reading aloud doesn't work for your family. It's just that you haven't found the right book yet. Dig around for a different jelly bean. It's in there somewhere. (23:30): Help your child form his or her own reading taste. Bookish people, I'm sorry to say, have an unfortunate tendency toward elitism. I know this because I am a bookish person and also because I hang out with other bookish sorts. In the name of helping our children love what is good, true and beautiful, and in our zealous desire to put quality books into the hands of our children, we have the very unfortunate habit of disparaging books we've decided don't pass muster. We want to cultivate good taste in literature, yes, but there is a marked difference between good taste and elitism. It's tempting to tell our kids which books they should or shouldn't like, but good taste is acquired over time. It also varies from person to person. God gave each of us unique taste buds and because of that we can enjoy rich and varied culinary experiences. I'm convinced that he gave us unique literary taste buds for the same reason. (24:28): The best way to help our children develop good literary taste is to put lots and lots of quality books in their path. We fill our home with good books and make it nearly impossible for our kids to avoid them. When we read aloud, we choose books that appeal regardless of age and leave us with an overall sense of hope. We choose books with vivid imagery, rich language, and engaging plots. In this way, we give our families an excellent chance of acquiring good taste over time. (24:56): In chapter seven, I told you that my oldest daughter devoured light books when she was younger. Books like The Babysitters Club and Cupcake Diaries. We also read aloud a lot of classics together, Newbery award winners and other books that I knew appealed to a broad range of ages in which would leave us with an overall hope and love for the world and the people in it. She still enjoys reading light books. Don't we all? But her favorites are classics written by Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Maud Heart Lovelace. (25:26): When we fill our children's literary plates with the best books we can find, books that appeal to multiple ages, that leave us feeling more in awe and more grateful than we were before we started reading them, that speak to the human heart through the skilled and lyrical use of words, we spread a feast before them. And what one likes another may not. That's okay, because we have many options. However, it's important to note that we won't get far when we disparage something our child loves. In fact, we may actually do great damage, making a child wonder what is wrong with them because they like something their mother or father thinks is garbage, twaddle or dumb. (26:06): Instead, consider the idea that light books end up being like a small bowl of marshmallows on a table set with a grand assortment of more nourishing foods. They don't take away from the grandness or richness of the greater feast. They are simply a small, delightful part of a wide and varied meal. I don't feel loved or cared for when someone disparages or insults my favorite things, and I'm quite sure my children don't either. If we want to cultivate good taste in our children, then we can concentrate on increasing their exposure to good and wonderful books. We allow our children to cultivate their own unique literary taste when we place before them a veritable feast of the best books we can find and then let them develop their own relationship with what they read. (26:50): You don't have to get it all in. There isn't any book list your children must get through by a certain age to be well-read, well-educated or ready for the world. Might I repeat that? Your kids don't need to read certain books by the time they leave your home. In fact, we don't want our kids to read every wonderful book while they're at home. We want to leave some titles for them to discover down the road. I first encountered G.K. Chesterton's work in my 30s, and what a joy to find, upon reading my first Father Brown mystery that I had stumbled upon a treasure trove. Likewise, I never read anything by Laura Ingalls Wilder until I was a mother. Those books have shaped the childhoods of countless children, and yet my first introduction to the world of the Ingalls family happened when I was experiencing them with my kids. What fun it was to first experience the world of Laura, her older sister Mary, and younger sisters Carrie and Grace alongside my children. (27:47): I sometimes recommend books by Natalie Babbitt to friends, adults and children alike. They are often incredulous after reading Tuck Everlasting or The Search For Delicious. "How had I never read these before?" They wonder. "How is this the first time I've ever read her work?" When you find yourself worrying that your child hasn't read a certain book or a certain author, don't despair. Don't try to cram it into the schedule. Think to yourself with delight what a joy it will be to stumble across that author or that book or that series down the road. (28:18): Fill your child's life with good books, but don't worry about getting to them all. Resist the temptation to assign piles and piles of reading out of fear that your child will miss something important. Gaps in our children's reading lives make room for our kids to find and delight in literary favorites during their adulthood. We don't want the best reading our children will ever do to happen all before they turn 18, do we? We want them to be readers for life. (28:45): Break the rules. Remember your goal. If whatever you're reading is not helping your child loved the reading experience, if it's becoming a stumbling block, then change the book. No book list is gospel. You, my friend, know your child better than anyone else in the world and you have been chosen by God to be his or her literary matchmaker, his or her greatest champion, his or her favorite guide. Even if your child doesn't read the literary giants or encounter the best of the classics, he will remember that you read to him. (29:17): Trust your instincts. You can ditch or skip any book that doesn't seem like a good fit for your family, or reread a book or series 10 times if that's what your family wants to do. You won't love all the books I or anyone else recommend. So learn to follow your gut, and get comfortable making decisions based on your own unique family personality and dynamic. Use the concepts in this chapter to help you choose books your whole family will find delightful, insightful and thought-provoking. At the same time, never let the guidelines set here or anywhere else override your God-given insight and instincts when it comes to catering to the literary palette of your child. Your goal is for your child to love books and to experience a childhood rich with memories of books shared. Books that delight the whole family, leave them with a sense of hope and awe and contain vivid imagery, rich language and an interesting storyline will go a long way toward both. When you become your child's literary matchmaker, you become their ally, friend, colleague and mentor all at once. By doing so, you make a meaningful and lasting connection with your child. Literary matchmaking is one of our most important tasks as parents who long to connect with our kids and cultivate their reading lives. (30:44): Now it's time for Let The Kids Speak. This is my favorite part of the podcast, where kids tell us about their favorite stories that have been read aloud to them. Noah (30:57): Hello. My name is Noah. I am eight years old. I live in Petersburg, Virginia, and my favorite book is The Magic Tree House books. My favorite part about every book is how it brings me to different places that I haven't been to before and I'm eight years old. Liliana (31:21): My name is Liliana and we live in a casso. Speaker 4 (31:25): El Paso. Liliana (31:25): Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I'm six year old, and my favorite book is Narnia because Aslan is kind of like Jesus because he died and he rose again and I really like Lucy because she's the bravest and because she has a really lovely dress when she is the queen. Anna (31:53): Hi, my name is Anna and I am nine years old. I live in New York state. My favorite book is Percy Jackson, The Titan's Curse. I like it because there's lots of adventure in the Percy Jackson series. My favorite part is when Percy Jackson, Thalia, Grover, and Zoe we tried to stop Luke and Kronos from taking over Mount Olympus. Emma (32:25): My name is Emma. I'm eight years old. I live in California. My favorite book is Matilda by Roald Dahl because she can move things with her mind. Speaker 7 (32:38): What's your name? William (32:38): William. Speaker 7 (32:40): William, how old are you? William (32:41): Two. Speaker 7 (32:42): Where are you from? William (32:42): I'm from California. Speaker 7 (32:46): What's your favorite book? William (32:47): The Christmas Carol. Speaker 7 (32:49): And why do you like the Christmas Carol? William (32:51): Because there are funny parts. Maddie (32:55): Hi, my name is Maddie and I live in Tokyo and I'm eight years old. And my favorite book is the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and I like it because Laura is always funny. David (33:12): My name is David. I'm four years old. My favorite book is Superman and I live in [inaudible 00:33:22]. Ben (33:20): Hi, I'm Ben and I live in Tokyo and my favorite book is the Spiderman book and I like it because he's funny. Speaker 12 (33:33): What's your name? Esther (33:34): Esther. Speaker 12 (33:35): How old are you? Esther (33:35): Four. Speaker 12 (33:37): Where do you live? Esther (33:38): In Germany, but I'm from Florida. Speaker 12 (33:41): And what's your favorite book? Esther (33:43): Frog and Todd. Speaker 12 (33:45): Why do you like it so much? Esther (33:47): Because the ice cream comes on Frog's head. Speaker 12 (33:51): Bye bye. Esther (33:52): Bye bye. Max (33:55): Hi, my name is Max. I'm five years old. I live in [inaudible 00:34:01] New York and my favorite book is Miss Nelson Is Missing because all the kids who are bad and the teacher became mean and put on a costume, her ugly back stress and the nose and a different face. Bye bye. Sarah Mackenzie (34:21): Thank you, kids. Hey, I hope you enjoyed listening to chapter nine of the Read Aloud Family. That book is available now, wherever you like to get your books as a print book, an e-reader, audio book. So whatever format you like best, we'll put links in the show notes. Don't forget that you can grab the free book list Our Favorite Picture Books For October. There are some absolute treasures on this list, so you don't want to miss that. You can just go to the show notes for this episode, readaloudrevival.com/138, or you can text the word October to the number 33777. I'll be back in two weeks with another episode of the Read Aloud Revival for you. Enjoy your October because aren't we all so glad we live in a world where there are Octobers? Until next time, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.