RAR #148: 3 Books I Adore, Reading Curriculum, and What We’re Reading Aloud This Spring

Sarah (00:00): 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): Hello everybody Sarah Mackenzie here, you've got episode 148 of the Read-Aloud Revival, it's time to talk about spring. Hooray, right? There is nothing better than talking about spring after a cold winter. We are tiptoeing our way toward March and I think it's arguably one of the best time of year for read alouds. I think I say that every season though, so I'm not sure if that's a fair statement. Every day is a good day for a read aloud. On today's show I want to give you the scoop on what we're reading this spring. Now, my house is kind of loud today, I mean my house is loud every day, I do have six kids after all, right? But today it does feel a little crazier than normal, so I'm just going to apologize right here at the top for any ruckus that my mic picks up in the background. I'm hoping there won't be any, but I'm sort of hedging my bets before we launch it today. Based on the noise that I can hear, I'm kind of thinking you might be able to hear some of it today too. (01:28): But here's what we're going to do in this episode, first I'm going to answer three listener questions, then I'm going to share with you our top recommendations for the spring and what we're reading at Read-Aloud Revival month-by-month, and of course we'll wrap up our episode with Let the Kids Speak and we're going to hear from 10 kids about the books they're loving right now. As always, the show notes for this episode are at readaloudrevival.com/148 because it's episode 148, and you'll find all the books I'm recommending on today's show and any links to anything I mention today, you'll find it all there in the show notes. (02:03): Now, before we dive in, I do want to make sure you know about our new free quiz that helps you decide what to read aloud next. Here's how it works, you tell me three things, how old your kids are, what kind of books you're in the mood for, whether that's something with a touch of magic or something contemporary and modern or maybe something from history or a classic, and then also what you're looking for, either a quick win or a longer read, and then I give you two book recommendations. So come on over and get yours, it's free, it takes less than two minutes. Readaloudrevival.com/quiz is where you do it, or you can just text the word, quiz, to the number 33777. Okay, so our first question today comes from Karen. Karen (02:47): Hi Sarah, this is Karen Gillis. I'm a homeschooling mom of three kids, and for the upcoming school year in the fall we will be studying American history using story of civilization. Whenever I get books that are from other reading lists that aren't Sarah Mackenzie approved, I can automatically tell a difference. I was wondering if you have a list of great picture books to use with my four, six and eight-year-old for next year for studying American history. Thanks so much for all you do. We love what you do and can't wait to see you at the Great Homeschool Convention in Ohio. Speaker 3 (03:23): Who's Sarah? Sarah (03:25): Okay, well first of all, thank you so much for the compliment, Karen. I'm really glad you see a difference in our book list. My favorite part of your question was at the very end when your child said, "Who's Sarah." I love it when I'm at homeschool conventions and a parent will say to their child, "Oh, this is Miss Sarah Mackenzie, You should say, 'thank you' to her." And they look at me like, "Who are you and why am I supposed to thank you?" It's the funniest thing. Anyway, okay, you gave me a much needed laugh today, so I appreciate it. Okay, so American history picture book list. Not yet, but we are making them right now. So we have plans to release American history picture book lists later this year, you can look for the first one, which will include picture books about early American history this summer. And then we'll be working on another one that focuses on events in later American history this fall. (04:19): We actually read every single book that goes on one of our lists. I think that's probably why you can see a difference, is we're reading every single one front to back, it's true. It takes us a really long time to make lists because of that, but I also think that's why our lists are so carefully curated. So, really excited about those new book lists and there are some absolutely wonderful picture books for all different ages on the different times in American history. So those are going to be some spectacular lists. Okay, let's take another question. Elise (04:49): Hey Sarah, this is Elise from Pella, Iowa, and I am dying to know if you were stuck on a desert island for the rest of your life, what three books could you read over and over and over again? I would love to hear your answer. Karen (05:14): Elise, I used to ask all of our guests here at Read-Aloud Revival this question, and I stopped asking it because I realized at one point how hard of a question it was to answer. It's too much pressure, I can't do it. No, I'm going to answer, but I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow, okay? So let's just say I go to the desert island today because this is too much pressure for me to do otherwise. Okay, I have so many followup questions. Are my kids with me? Am I by myself? And I'm just going to assume that the deserted island has a deserted hotel with a Gideon Bible in the nightstand, so I'm not going to bring one with me cause I'm pretty sure there's one there. Okay, are we good? All right, so what do I bring? The first thing that comes to mind is the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis because for many years, I read this once a year. Now it's been a while since I've done that, but that book can absolutely stand up to a lot of rereads. (06:08): Every time I reread it, I gain something new or I noticed something I didn't notice the first time, so the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, that's also an excellent read aloud for teens, so if my teens were with me, they would be able to enjoy it as well. Okay, what else? Are you sure I can't bring my Kindle? I think, I'm just going to pick a middle-grade. If there's one middle grade novel that I'd have to read over and over and over for the rest of my life, either out loud to my kids or on my own, what would it be? And it would be Sweep by Jonathan Auxier, it is perfect. I've already read it a few times. I cry every time. I laugh every time. I love it every time. I could keep doing that. It's a newer book, it just came out in 2018 and it is astoundingly good. And Jonathan Auxier has been a guest on both Read-Aloud Revival and in RAR Premium, and he is a gem and the book is perfection, so Sweep. (07:06): And then I don't know for my third one I feel like I need to pick a long book. So maybe I would pick David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. I don't know, that's what I'm going to say today. Sweep, The Screwtape Letters and David Copperfield, and of course the Gideon Bible. And you're going to have to ask me this again in a few months so I can change my answers because I'll probably need to at that point. Thanks for the fun question. Amanda (07:32): Hi Sarah, I'm Amanda from Florida, and I'm wondering do you use a reading curriculum for your homeschooling? This is our first year, and we actually used a curriculum, but I'm wondering if my kids wouldn't enjoy choosing books that they want to read for reading on their own, because I've seen them decline in reading for pleasure since starting reading as a subject in our homeschool. I just wanted to know what that would look like maybe, if I did that if I should have them read certain books or just let them completely free range choose their own. So I was just curious what you guys do. Thanks. Karen (08:11): Okay. So there are a couple of different answers to this question, Amanda. When it comes to reading instruction, so by that I mean teaching my kids how to read, yes, I use a curriculum. I have used and loved All About Reading in the past, I still highly recommend it. These days I'm using Logic of English, it's very similar to All About Reading, it uses the same Orton-Gillingham method, but it's more of all-in-one package. So it feels simpler to me right now as an open-and-go program since I have three kids all learning how to read at the same time. I've two six-year-olds and a seven-year-old, so I needed to simplify, but that's why we switched to Logic of English. I love it. So I'm going to put links to both of those reading programs in the show notes. (08:55): As soon as my child can read fluently, and by that I mean they could read, let's say a Beverly Cleary book like Henry Huggins or Ramona the Pest. Once they can read a book like that, then I stop using reading curriculum altogether and we just read. If that sounds compelling to you, listen on because I'll tell you a little bit about how that works for us. And if you're eager for a little more background or maybe you'd feel better getting a Master Teacher's permission to do this, get your hands on The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. This is a wonderful book. Donalyn is a Masterful Reading Teacher, and in this book The Book Whisperer, she makes a solid case for why independent reading, where the child is reading books they choose for themselves, makes the most impact on reading achievement. Far and a way more effective than any kind of "reading curriculum", "Read this book and do this assignment, answer these questions or assigned reading with some kind of followup activity." (09:54): So, in fact, let me just read to you from page 51 of The Book Whisper, she says this, "In the power of reading his meta analysis of research investigating independent reading over the past 40 years, Stephen Creation reveals that no single literacy activity has a more positive effect on students' comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, spelling, writing ability and overall academic achievement, than free voluntary reading." That is quite an argument. So, the whole book is excellent and if you want a little bit more validation for the choice to ditch reading curriculum or "literature curriculum" and just do a lot of reading with your family, this is the place to start. Again, that's called The Book Whisperer and it's by Donalyn Miller, and I will put it in the show notes. (10:42): So we don't use reading curriculum or literature curriculum at our house once our kids are reading fluently. Once they know how to read, we just read a lot. We talk about those books, we share experiences around books that we're reading aloud together, and then we read some more. I read aloud, everybody reads on their own. I require that my kids spend time reading, so I will assign time, reading time. But I, for the most part, I don't actually assign titles. So for example, we'll have a quiet reading hour in the middle of the day, and everybody including me, reads independently during that time. My kids who are not reading fluently, they listen to audio books in their room. I don't tell them what to read, I don't tell my teenagers what they should be reading during their reading time, that time is for reading and only reading. (11:31): And for my older kids and high school students, they're spending hours a day reading and I'm not assigning all of their books, that would be not as pleasant experience for them or me, I think. And there are some exceptions to the assigning thing. So for example, I have used a strategy where I'll choose, at the beginning of a school year, I'll choose six to eight books let's say, that I want my child to read during the school year. Those are usually books that I know he or she won't pick up on their own. So, for example, one of my kids is a fantasy lover, actually a couple of them are, but I've got one in mind at the moment. She doesn't read a lot of historical fiction books on her own, it's just not what she chooses from the shelf. So I will choose six to eight books that are things she wouldn't pick up on her own. [inaudible 00:12:17] might not naturally pick up a classic, and so I will choose a classic. And all of these books, six to eight, or nine, whatever, there's no magical number. (12:26): They go on a shelf or a basket and I will tell my child, "You're required to read these books this year. I don't care if you read them all before Christmas, I don't care if you read one a month, I don't care if you read them all in May. You get to choose when you read them, but you are required to read all of these books this year. This is your assignment. When you finish each book, come talk to me about it." And Donalyn Miller does something similar, she talks about something similar in The Book Whisperer, and I may morph my own model to look a little more like hers, she assigns the number of books her students are required to read in their reading class because she's a reading teacher, so she teaches a reading class, right, for middle schoolers or older elementary students, now I can't quite remember. (13:05): Anyway, she will assign a certain number of books to finish and genres. So I think her number is 40, they have to read 40 books over the year, and this many have to be historical fiction, this many should be classics, this many should be biographies, this many should be science fiction, right? So that your child doesn't get stuck in a reading rut, so that they sort of develop a wide ranging palette. And a lot of times kids will discover that they like genres they didn't think they'd like just simply because they're exposed to them. So then you're assigning time and you're assigning genre, but you're not assigning the actual title. (13:38): And this kind of goes back to what I talked with Alan Jacobs about in episode, I think it was 145, where it's funny how as soon as the book is assigned to us, and adults are the same way it becomes, he says, "As broccoli unto us," it's the last thing, he even talks about how the books he puts on his own reading list that he chose, as soon as it's on the list, it becomes, as broccoli unto him, I think is the way he says it. Because there's something about just that free choice that keeps reading delightful, so I really think about that before I assign a specific book. When I'm choosing those six to eight or nine titles for my child's assigned reading basket or shelf, I will choose books that I think are likely to be hits. (14:21): So if I'm picking classics, I'm going to choose classics that I think are likely going, my child's, like that particular child, is likely to enjoy. Always keeping the idea of reading as pleasure as a forefront of my mind, because when our kids are growing up, they're under 18, right? We're not talking about college students here, we're talking about usually 12-year-olds, and they need to continually associate reading with pleasure. And they will naturally be able to and desire to read harder, deeper, more interesting things, if their love of reading remains intact, that has to be primary. One of the things I like to think about is that my goal for "reading class" is to raise kids who love to read, right? And who do it for information and do it for pleasure well into adulthood. They are going to live most of their life, not in my home, and so I want to launch them into the rest of their life loving books and doing it for pleasure. (15:19): I don't know of a reading curriculum that has that same goal or whose ends are so focused on that goal, as simply making time and space for your kids to read. Donalyn Miller, in that book, The Book Whisperer, makes a very compelling case for that, there is no possible way to compel a child to reach that goal except a lot of reading, free choice reading. So we do use open-ended questions at our house to discuss the books read, and I mentioned, I'll tell my child, "Hey, you need to read these six to nine books or whatever on this shelf over the school year and come talk to me as you finish each one." This is how I can tell if my kids are actually reading, because you can't have an open-ended conversation, organic conversation fed by open-ended questions, they won't be able to have that conversation with me if they hadn't read the book. (16:08): So as an example, if you ask your child, "Who was the most courageous in the Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, and what was it that they did that was so courageous? They can only answer that question if they read the book. And when you start making conversations, just a natural constant way of interacting with your kids, it becomes sort of this natural flow of relationship. You just know when your kids are reading, how much they're reading, it's not as difficult as you might think to keep tabs on your child's reading life. Those open-ended questions that I use, they're all in my book, The Read Aloud Family, and you can find that wherever books are sold, and then I also teach a one hour masterclass on how to talk with your kids about any book, even if you haven't read it yourself, in RAR Premium. So of course when you join RAR Premium, you get access to that class right away, and so that's rarpremium.com if you're interested in that masterclass. (17:05): And actually in RAR premium, let me just rabbit trail for a second, because the whole, what we do in our RAR Premium is built on this same model. We do a monthly Family Book Club that is centered on a book, once a quarter it's a novel, every month there's a picture book that's excellent for all ages, including your older kids. We use that same model of reading a book, talking about it, using open-ended questions, we actually give those to you that are specific to that month's book in premium. And then sharing experiences, usually meals or other simple but meaningful experiences, that seal the book in your child's mind as one of their best memories. And all of that is, that's the framework for our Family Book Club, and we give you a book club guide that walks you through each of those pieces of it premium. (17:50): And so, then we take an extra step in premium and we invite the author or the illustrator, every single month, every single book club, we invite the author or illustrator to come do a live video stream in RAR Premium, so that your kids can ask their questions and get them answered. This is a game changer. It really makes books come alive far, far better than a traditional literature curriculum, or the kind of reading curriculum that's usually sold for kids who are fluent readers, "Read this book and answer these questions." And what I love about this model too, is it's something that you can do as a whole family. It doesn't take much time and it goes a really long way to helping your kids love reading and turning your kids into lifelong readers. (18:32): If you are using some kind of reading or literature curriculum and you notice your kids aren't reading much for pleasure, alarm bells need to be going off. That should be red flag, red flag, red flag, because the goal is to launch our children into their adult lives as readers. So if our literature or reading curriculum is not doing that and is in fact an obstacle to that, then it is not worth, whatever they're gaining from that program, is not worth the price that it's costing, which is your child's love of reading. Does that make sense? (19:00): Thank you so much for that question, Amanda. I hope that helps, and we'll keep talking on the podcast about ways to do this, and we talk about it all the time in the RAR Premium forum. So come on over to premium and we can help you think through, pick books for your assigned books. If you want to use the idea of creating a basket or a shelf of assigned books, or kind of help you figure out how to guide your child's reading life without assigning books or using a traditional reading curriculum, because we're all about it. (19:44): So this leads me right into what we're reading this spring, and that's what we're going to spend the rest of this episode talking about, what we're reading in RAR premium this spring. Now, if you choose to read any of these books with us, you're in good company, these are our Family Book Club selections for the next few months. The books we choose for Family Book Club, they're very carefully chosen to keep in mind that we want books that are a good fit for a wide range of ages. We call it Family Book Club after all, right? We choose a picture book every single month, and that picture book is excellent for all ages. Yep, even your older kids, your teens, I use these books with all of my kids. And the same is true with our novel choices, we read one novel each season and those are also chosen with a wide age range in mind. All of the books are specifically chosen for their read aloud ability too, so they're good to read aloud, especially good for the ear. (20:41): We make a Family Book Club guide every month to go with these, and those can be downloaded from inside RAR Premium. Those book club guides, they contain ideas for a good shared experience about the book, usually it's some way to transform your ordinary dinner into a book club experience that the whole family can take a part of. I love this because it really makes book club, not just one more thing on the schedule, not another thing on your to-do list, but it just really transformed something you're already doing every day, making dinner, and transforming it into a memorable, delightful, enriching educational experience. And it includes everybody, mom, dad, kids, everybody, it's great, it's just a really, really delightful way to go about a book club. (21:23): So, those Family Book Club guides have those ideas for your shared experience, open-ended questions that are specific to the books we've chosen, and those can be used with all different ages. And then some tips for looking at and reading the book closely, because we are something of picture book ninjas around here. I'm just going to say it. We're really, really into helping our kids look carefully at the artifact that is a beautifully made picture book, and there is so much to see when you know what to look for, so we sort of help you do that with your kids. And then the magic comes of course at the end when the author or illustrator comes to RAR Premium to meet your kids and answer their questions. (22:05): So, what are we reading this spring? Our March Family Book Club selection is Eliza Wheeler's newest picture book, Home in the Woods. This is a picture book based on Eliza's grandmother's true story from the Great Depression. The father died, mother then moved with her, oh, I want to say eight kids, it might be seven, out to a tar paper shack in the middle of the woods because they had no income, nothing to eat, nowhere to live, again, based on a true story. And what they discover about themselves, about each other, about the beauty and resilience of family, it's not something you or your kids will forget. Eliza Wheeler is one of my very favorite illustrators making books for kids today, and she wrote and illustrated this one. This book is a perfect reason why it is my favorite of hers yet, it's called Home in the Woods, that's March. (23:01): In April we're going to read aloud a picture book biography together this one is, Balderdash! John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children's Books by Michelle Markel and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. So you're probably familiar with the Newbery award, that's the metal awarded by the American Library Association for the greatest contribution to children's literature each year. That award is named after John Newbery, a man who knew that children needed books of their own, way back in the 18th century because, and kids, if you're listening, can you imagine this? There were not books for kids. For most of history, kids had no books. You are so lucky to be born right now where you have so many books for you. There were so many generations of kids who never had their own books. And then when they did start printing books for kids, they were kind of dreadful little booklets full of trite lessons and thinly veiled lectures really. (23:58): So John Newbery knew kids needed something better and he changed the world of reading for kids forever. You find out all about it in this hilariously illustrated picture book biography. Excellent for all ages. In fact, if you do not believe me that a picture book is excellent for all ages, I will challenge you to pick up, Balderdash! John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children's Books. Read it with your older kids, read that back matter and then come talk to me and we'll talk about it. I cannot wait to talk to Nancy Carpenter about her illustrations for this book in RAR Premium. That's April. (24:31): In May we have a double treat. The book we've chosen for our book club is Nine Months, this is written by Miranda Paul, illustrated by Jason Chin. This picture book celebrates life in the womb. It is easily my new favorite book for expectant mamas and big brothers and sisters, but really it's just a wonderful book for everyone. It's scientific, the text is lyrical as Miranda's books often are, she is such a gifted writer. And then Jason Chin's illustrations are breathtaking. I want to give this book a million awards. Anyway, Jason Chin is going to come, he's going to talk in premium about making the art for this book and the particular challenge of drawing a growing baby of the womb, which is no small feat. (25:17): And then in a separate event in premium, the author Miranda Paul is coming to teach our young writers a workshop. It's called Getting Creative, and she's going to teach our kids and us as well of course, how to take something factual, just a fact, and turn it into an interesting bit of writing. She's a master of that, her nonfiction books, Nine Months included, another one I loved by her is, Water is Water, same illustrator, author, illustrator team. They are works of art. So those are our spring picture books, Home in the Woods, Balderdash! and Nine Months. Now each season we also read a novel, and this season we're reading aloud Heidi by Johanna Spyri. So we'll have a Family Book Club guide for this one as well of course, and you and your kids can read it aloud or listen to it on audio. The thing about Family Book Club is that you can do as much or as little as fits your current family life, right? (26:14): So you might just do the picture books and not do the novel, and that is an extremely rich experience in itself, or you might want to just read one of the picture books and the novel. Your kids may be old enough to really love the author access events, meeting the author and illustrator. Your books may, your kids I mean, maybe too young to really appreciate that, maybe you'll just enjoy it, but the book club guide is chock full of great experiences to flush out and enrich your family's reading. So the key here is that you use the Family Book Club as a menu, not a to-do list, you make it fit to your schedule. We make it really easy for you to do that. And so, I think if you are looking for amping up the delight in your home for reading this spring, then these book clubs are going to help you do that. (27:02): We also have something new in RAR Premium this year, and it's called Circle with Sarah. It's a monthly live coaching session with me, where you get ideas and encouragement to help you create the homeschooling life you crave. And if you want to enjoy your homeschool more, or you want to teach from rest and you want more peace and confidence and joy in your day-to-day, these are made for you. Our members have only done a couple so far, they happen every month on the first Friday and we just started in January, so there's only been a couple. But we've already heard a couple of things, one of them was, somebody said, "This alone is worth the price of membership." And then another said, "These circles are game changers. Easily the best thing we've ever done for our homeschool." So, it's worth coming to find out what that buzz is all about. (27:46): This spring in Circle with Sarah, we're going to be putting first things first. We're going to be working on easy, simple ways to establish a reading habit yourself, something I think a lot of us want to do more, right? I'm not talking about reading aloud, I'm talking about modeling a rich reading life. So we're going to talk about easy, simple ways to do that if you've gotten out of the habit of reading or never had the habit of reading, or if you just want to increase your habit of reading, any of those. We're also going to be diving into why and how curriculum is our servant, not our master. How our job is to teach our children and not the curriculum, that's a big one. We're also going to unpack what's really happening when we worry, which is going to help us, I think, come to the end of our school year in a healthier way. So we can evaluate our kids and our homeschool from a place of abundance and rest that will actually help us move forward. (28:38): And then because we can't get enough of Louisa May Alcott around here these days, we're also going to do a Mama Book Club. We are reading, moms in our group, are reading Little Men, so we're reading it slowly each week, talking about it in the forum, and then at the end we get a live video chat with Jan Turnquist who is here on an earlier, just a couple of episodes back, to talk about Louisa May Alcott. She's the Executive Director of Orchard House, and she is going to come dig into Little Men and more about Louisa May Alcott's life with us. That is what we're reading this spring. That's what we're learning and digging into, and we'd love for you to join us. So you can join us now, registration is open. We are open in RAR Premium, you just go to rarpremium.com, you should find answers to your questions there, be able to grab our schedule, our printable calendar, you can stick it up on your fridge and kind of see everything that's happening this season and RAR Premium at a glance. (29:36): And when I say RAR Premium is the best we offer at Read-Aloud Revival, that might be understating things. If you're just listening to the podcast, you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg and you're missing out on the richness offered in premium and those Family Book Clubs, Circle with Sarah, and our amazing forum. And really, it is the best place on the internet, I am 100% sure that is such [inaudible 00:29:59]. It is such a life giving place on the internet, I would love to see you there so you can see it for yourself. You can join monthly or you can join for quarter or for the whole year, there's no commitment so you can cancel anytime. We even offer a 30 day 100% money back guarantee, so you can try it without any risk. There's nothing to lose by giving it a whirl, and we'd love to have you inside. (30:22): All right, let's hear from the kids, shall we? Now, it's time for Let the Kids Speak. I love this part of the podcast because kids share the books that they've been loving lately. David Bell (30:41): My name is David Bell, I live in California, I'm five-years-old, and my favorite book is Busy Town. What do people do all day, and I like it because that the noise are funny, and that is made by Richard Scarry. Fisher Bell (31:08): Hello, my name is Fisher Bell and I live in California. I'm eight-years-old and my favorite book is Redwall by Brian Jacques, because it's because it has so many adventures in it. Leah (31:23): My name is Leah and I am 10-years-old, I live in Riverton, Wyoming. My favorite book is Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. I like that book because it is adventurous and funny. Faith (31:38): Hello, my name is Faith, and I'm six-years-old and I live in Riverton, Wyoming. And my favorite book is Pinkalicious, and I like it because she has the same favorite color as me. Katie (31:55): Hello, my name is Katie, I am eight-years-old and I live in Riverton, Wyoming. And my favorite book, well my favorite books are the Mercy Watson Collection by Kate DiCamillo. And I like it because she's funny and she eats toast with a great deal of butter on it like me. Macy (32:19): Hi, my name is Macy and I am eight-years-old. I live in Rochester, New York and one of my favorite books is The Trumpet of the Swan. It's one of my favorite books because it's about wildlife. And E.B. White, the author, is such a good writer, it's like you're right in the store with the swan, and you miss [inaudible 00:32:41]. Speaker 12 (32:41): How old are you? Speaker 13 (32:43): 6-years-old. Speaker 12 (32:44): And where are you from? Speaker 13 (32:46): Rochester. Speaker 12 (32:47): What is your favorite book? Speaker 13 (32:49): My Father's Dragon. Speaker 12 (32:50): Why is that your favorite book? Speaker 13 (32:52): Because it has a dragon and then the second one, it has treasure. Jackson (32:59): Hello, my name is Jackson, I'm from Minnesota. My favorite book is Green Number, I like it because when they say, "Until the green number rises, for the end of the world." Speaker 15 (33:12): Hello, my name is [inaudible 00:33:15], I'm from Minnesota. I am four, and my favorite book is Batman. And my favorite part of Batman is rescues people and he saves and [inaudible 00:33:33]. Gwenyth (33:33): Hi, my name is Gwenyth and I'm eight-years-old and I live in Spokane, Washington. And my favorite book read aloud to me was the Penderwicks. Karen (33:45): Wow, so many favorites named in today's messages. Thank you so much kids. Hey, if your kids would like to leave a message to be aired on the podcast, they can do that at readaloudrevival.com, you just want to go there, scroll all the way down, you'll see a button where your kids can leave a voicemail. And by the way we edit and clean those up, so if you need to coach your child through, if they need to repeat after you, anything that you need to do in order to help your kids, leave us a message, we can clean it up on our end. So go ahead and leave that message, we love to hear from you. We appreciate your patience too, because I know kids, it can be kind of a long wait to hear your voice on the podcast, but it's probably one of my favorite parts of doing the podcast is listening to each of these messages, and it's no wonder why, you guys have excellent taste in books and I love hearing about what you're reading. (34:36): Hey, if you're enjoying the podcast, would you take just a minute to go to iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts, and leave us a rating and review? Those help just a ton when it comes to getting the word out about the podcast and helping new listeners find us. And we appreciate your help so very much, there's a reason Read-Aloud Revival has been downloaded over 6 million times, and it's because of you. So we appreciate every time you tell a friend about the show. I'll be back in two weeks, so in the meantime, go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.