RAR #149: Keeping Up with Advanced Readers, Colleen Kessler

Sarah (00:00): Hey, before we get started with today's episode, I wanted to make sure you know that you can use our brand new free tool, a quiz to find your next read loud. You answer three quick questions, and then I give you a recommendation. What if my own personal recommendation's for the next best read aloud for you and your kids? Give it a whirl. It's free at readaloudrevival.com/quiz or by texting the word "Quiz" to the number 33777. (00:41): 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. Well, Sarah Mackenzie here. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Glad to have you along for episode 149 today. This is an episode we've been anticipating for a while because we get a lot of questions asking about advanced readers. How do we help our kids find books that are appropriate for them if they're reading above their own grade level? I invited someone onto the show to help us with that today. I know you're going to love her like I do. Her name is Colleen Kessler. (01:28): She's a friend of mine. In fact, she's also the author of several books for teachers, parents and children. She has a master's degree in gifted education and she spent over 10 years as a gifted intervention specialist advocating for the bright and often misunderstood children with whom she worked. Now, she's continuing to write and podcast and she homeschools her own highly gifted and twice exceptional kids and she's my own first go-to stop for answers to this question, what on earth can we put into the hands of young readers that's appropriate for their reading ability but still honors and respects their level of maturity and doesn't ask them to grow up too fast too soon? (02:10): Now I get to see Colleen several times a year because we both speak at the great homeschool conventions. We're going to be at all seven conventions this year in 2020. We're even doing a super fun moms' night out type of event on Thursday evening with our other favorite Pam Barnhill. (02:27): The three of us will be hosting a relaxing and fun evening of encouragement and laughter at all seven great homeschool conventions. We're calling it, "The Real Mom Tour," and we've never done anything quite like it before. So join us. You will find out more about it at greathomeschoolconventions.com and be able to grab your tickets to The Real Mom Tour there as well. All right, it's time for our listener questions. Today's first question comes from Katie. Katie (02:56): Hi Sarah. My name is Katie. I am from New York City. I have a four-year old and an 18-month old, my son. So he just turned four and we read aloud a lot. We read a lot at night and listen to audio books. I'm having a problem in that he's starting to outgrow the stories that have the appropriate content for him. So he's ready for longer chapter books, but he's not ready for the content. He's very impressionable, he's a sensitive kid. He just soaks everything in. (03:28): So, for instance, we've gone through all the Mercy Watson stories. He listened to Mr. Popper's Penguins in one sitting. So I started the Beverly Cleary, Mouse And The Motorcycle series with him, and we read that in two days, The Mouse and His Motorcycle and he wants to start on Runaway Ralph, but now he's afraid there's like poison around the house and stuff. So I'm not sure what to do. We're we're going to start the Anna Hibiscus series I think, and maybe take a break from Ralph because it might be a little too intense for him. Any suggestions you have would be so appreciated. Sarah (04:04): Yeah, hi Katie. You know what? I totally understand where you're coming from. One of my older kids when she was really young was super sensitive and would actually sob when Winnie the Pooh would get stuck in the honey tree. It was so traumatizing for her. So anyway, I always think it's just such a ... I want to affirm you, I guess is the first thing I want to do, because I think it's such a good mama thing to do for you to be aware of what your child is ready to be reading and handling and what they're sensitive to, and sensitive readers are very good readers. So I think it's a good thing. It's a good problem to have, but here's what I would recommend. (04:39): First of all, Anna Hibiscus is an excellent place to go, so I hope you did indeed go that direction. Those are excellent books. Another book that I would recommend is Tumtum and Nutmeg by Emily Bearn, Bearn as in B-E-A-R-N. These are fun mouse adventures, not too intense, at least not that I can remember anything that's in there that would be too intense, but they're fun adventure stories. They're also really long, so they might satisfy his desire for a longer narrative without getting too intense. That's Tumtum and Nutmeg. (05:13): Then another series I would recommend is Paddington Bear that starts with a bear called, "Paddington" by Michael Bond. Best read in an English accent if you can pull it off. They're fun and not too intense, again, I don't think. I haven't read every single one of them. Out of all of the ones I read, I don't think I remember anything too intense of them, but you know, one of the thing I want to mention a couple things actually. One is that it's really just fine for you to be rereading and rereading old favorites. So if there are some that he's loved before, just reread them. There's so much to be gained from rereading books that have been read before or read aloud before. (05:50): Then the other tip I want to give you is to stick with picture books for a bit longer and we're going to talk about this in today's show, but there's really no benefit as far as elevated language syntax, language patterns, composition when you jump from picture books to chapter books. In fact, for the most part, we actually take a step down and we'll talk about more about why that is today in the show with Colleen. (06:17): For now, I would just want to put a bug in your ear that you can stay with picture books for a really long time and if he loves having long read aloud sessions, just get bigger and bigger stacks of picture books, especially treasuries or something that you can sit with for a really long time. There is no harm to be done in staying with picture books for longer and you're probably going to find less angsty topics in picture books, and you're going to find in most middle-grade or even early chapter books. (06:44): So definitely don't hesitate to just stay with them longer. You don't gain anything when you move into middle grade and chapter books that you can't get through picture books. I hope that helps, Katie. Okay, we've got another question. This one comes from Andrea. Andrea (06:58): Hi, Sarah. I have a question about book recommendations for my son. He is five going on six and he's been reading for a couple of years on his own. So he really loves the Magic Treehouse books and can read those on his own. So the struggle I have is finding books or other series that would be about that reading level, but that are still maturity-wise level appropriate for just a five, six-year old and aren't getting into things that really he should wait until he's seven, eight to be reading and thinking about. (07:35): The other question I have along that lines is he really loves superheroes, but I won't let him read the comics because of some of the language used in there and some of the graphics that I don't think are appropriate for him. So he has grabbed some of those easy readers, superhero books, which are okay, but they're below his reading level really because they're for like level one readers. So just wondering if there are any books out there that have the superhero themes or mindset that are above a level one reader but they aren't the graphic comic books that would be appropriate for a child. Sarah (08:18): Hi, Andrea. Okay, so yes, if your son enjoyed the Magic Treehouse books, another series that he might enjoy are the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy. Those are fun and they're at about the same reading level as the Magic Treehouse series, so I bet he'll be able to read those. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner is another favorite series to recommend. That's probably a step up from Magic Treehouse in difficulty level. So I would try the Ron Roy books first, the A to Z Mysteries. (08:48): Then once he's gained a little speed and fluency, then you can move on to Boxcar Children books. There's a bazillion of them so that'll keep them busy for a while. Also, at about the same level as the Boxcar Children books is Encyclopedia Brown and that series is the one that turned my son into a reader when he was first getting the hang of reading to himself. So again, there's a lot of Encyclopedia Brown books as well. (09:11): I will have all these recommendations in the show notes so no worries if you're driving or you're otherwise busy and didn't get a chance to jot those down. They're in the show notes to episode 149 at readaloudrevival.com/149. Now, Andrea, I think you submitted your voicemail before we had made a list of favorite graphic novels for kids. If you missed it, we did a whole podcast on graphic novels for kids and that's that read aloud.com/137 or you can just scroll back and look for episode number 137 in your podcast app. (09:43): The team and I talk about why some kids are really attracted to graphic novels and we also talk about some of our favorites, because there are indeed some really wonderful stories being told in the graphic novel format. Also, what your kids are gaining from reading graphic novels. Then we have a tendency to think it's "light" reading. I'm putting light in quotation marks, if you could see my hands, but it's actually multimodal reading. We go into that in episode 137 and also give some good recommendations, especially for younger kids. (10:15): So check out that book list, readaloudrevival.com/137. I bet you will find some good, solid, wholesome graphic novels there that are appropriate for his age. All right, I hope that helps. Let's go ahead and start in on my conversation with Colleen Kessler from Raising Lifelong Learners. (10:53): Colleen, welcome to the Read Aloud Revival. Colleen (10:56): Thank you. I am so excited to be here. This is going to be fun. Sarah (10:59): It's kind of funny that this is your first time here because we've known each other for a really long time. So I had to go look because I thought, "Colleen's been on the podcast before." Okay, so a question that we get asked about a lot around here is keeping up with kiddos who learned to read early. The library is filled with books of course, but just because a child can read everything doesn't mean they should. So is this something that you hear over at Raising Lifelong Learners as well? Colleen (11:27): Yes. It's probably one of the, I don't know if it's the biggest fear type thing or if it's just something that is on parents' minds a lot when they're dealing with raising and hanging out with kids who seem to be smarter than them and always have a book in hand. So we hear that in groups. I hear that when I'm live, people ask me that all the time. So there'll be a half a dozen at each event this year at our GHCs asking me the same question. It's super duper common. So you're not alone in your worry if you're listening and worried about this. Sarah (11:58): Yeah, it's interesting. This was never a problem for me when my kids were younger because I didn't have any early readers out of all my six kid, but it is something that would come up for me once they were reading fluently, of course and they're older because there is sort of this weird thing that we tend to do, not just us as parents, but teachers and schools and just the culture at large where it's sort of like always trying to push you to the next level. If something's easy then you should move up to the next level. (12:25): I think kids feel that too and they start to feel like they need to move up to a different section of the library or bookstore, and the content of course doesn't always match where their reading ability is. Colleen (12:38): Yes. Yes, that's such a huge problem, especially now I love, love, love the current young adult literature, but I don't want my 12-year old reading it. Sarah (12:48): Right, exactly. We've done an episode actually on young adult literature being a genre and the themes and ideas that you find in young adult literature. What's allowed in a YA novel for example is pretty much anything actually, so compared to a middle grade. So it's helpful to at least be aware. Also, I think it's helpful because if your child is an early reader and they're reading a lot, you're probably having a hard time keeping them in books, which I think is the crux of the question is how do I keep up with my child's voracious reading habit? If they're reading faster than I do, and if they're reading ahead of their grade level, and so they're just running out of books. What are your thoughts for that kind of question? Colleen (13:37): My thoughts are twofold in this. The first is it's not necessarily our job to, I know parents want to know how can they pre-read? How can they preview and get into everything before their kids do? It's not our job to do that. It's our job to teach our kids discernment. It's our job to help our kids know what their values are, their morals are, their worldview is, and to help them see within a book right away if it's going to be something that they're going to really enjoy that's going to feed them or that it's something that they might want to put aside. (14:09): When we talked, gosh, way back when on my podcast, you and I talked about a story about my daughter who did come out of the womb reading. Out of all four of my kids, she is my only early reader and I don't even know when or how she started reading, but she was reading books bigger than her head as a three or four-year old. I can't keep up with her. I could have never kept up with her, but we talked about everything she read. There are so many resources. (14:36): Your book is a great one with those questions at the back that can go with any book. Just talking and opening the dialogue with your kids early on about what they're reading and being interested if they come and tell you about books, so that they know they can talk to you about anything. The story that I was mentioning was about a time when Molly ran across a theme that she felt was a little bit too advanced for her and it was. It was a graphic novel and it was definitely like bordering into the YA realm. (15:09): I found it under her bed tied with a ribbon in like double and triple mats, because she had decided that not only was it not for her, but she didn't want her younger siblings to run across it because they weren't going to be ready for it. She not only self-censored, but realized that this was not something that she wanted a younger child to stumble across. Then when I found it, she opened up and apologized for coming across this book that was inappropriate in her words. (15:37): We had a great discussion about the fact that that's what we're supposed to do as readers. Show discernment, abandon a book if it's not the right time for us to read it or keep reading if it's something that we feel is a great discussion point or conversation starter to open up our minds to something new. Sarah (15:58): Yeah, I mean there's so many good things you pointed out there. One is that when we're talking about books with our kids and we're used to talking about books with our kids in sort of a casual, organic, really natural way, then they're more likely to mention things that they're stumbling across in their reading that we might not know about, and that's going to happen. (16:15): So one of the things I think is helpful for us all to realize is if your kids are reading on their own, they're going to at some point, stumble across something you wish they hadn't. What we're really raising our adult readers and adult readers need to be discerning as well, and so it's more helpful. One of the things I like to remember is that when my kids leave my house, they're not going to call me when they're 20 and ask my permission before they read any book. I want them already to be discerning readers and to be asking themselves questions about whether or not they should be continuing to read this, or if it's making them feel uncomfortable, or if they agree with everything the writer is saying or all those questions that discerning readers ask. I really like that. Colleen (16:57): Yeah, that whole critical thinking piece, right? We want them to be thinkers. We don't want them to just be passive in anything that they consume, whether it's something on a screen or something between the pages of a book. Sarah (17:06): Yeah, right. Okay, so how can we choose books without previewing everything? Colleen (17:11): Okay. So yeah, that's the second part of my answer. The first is that it's not up to us to pre-read everything. Then the second part is we need to help our kids make those good choices and they're not going to be able to just be thrown into a library and say, "Okay, I'll meet you at the front in an hour." That'll be a little bit overwhelming, especially to a book lover, right? If they're surrounded by books, they either want everything or they don't want anything because they can't make a decision. Sarah (17:34): That's true. Yeah. Colleen (17:36): So we need to help them know where to start. So it depends on the kid's age too. So when we're dealing with early, early readers, we're dealing with kids who again are like Molly who have books bigger than their heads and want to keep reading, and keep reading, and keep reading and you don't know how they started. We want to help them see the possibilities. (17:58): Then as they get older we want them to be able to look at all those possibilities and narrow down to their own likes and dislikes, but then be willing to try new things. So we want to talk early on and often about books. We want them to see us reading and we want to put things out. Frankly, it's like the unschooling philosophy of strewing, right? (18:22): We want to put in their pathway lots of different types of books that just might peak their interest that are just below their level. So they're like candy. They can eat them up super quickly and then at their developmental level or instructional level so they're pushing themselves a little bit more. Something that maybe they never would have picked up on their own, a nonfiction book, or mystery or a different genre than they're gravitating towards. (18:46): So we want to give them lots of options as best we can. So when my kids were young, especially Molly, when we went to the library, they would pick their books, but then I would also pick books that not only for myself, I'd pick my books, but then I would pick books a couple for each of the kids just that I thought maybe that they'd want. No expectations assigned to those if they abandoned them, if they never looked at them, if they ate them up and wanted everything by that author, it didn't matter to me. (19:16): The outcome was not something I was emotionally tied to. It was just, "This might be interesting. I'm going to throw it in my bag and see if maybe one of them picks it up." Then it could spark something else. Sarah (19:28): Yeah, I like that. I want to key in on a couple things you just said there. One is that you were talking about the importance of kids reading easy books and I think this might be worth sitting with for a minute, because like I had mentioned earlier, we do sort of tend to want to push our kids to the highest of their ability like, oh that book's too easy for you so I'm going to get you something that's "at your reading level" or will push you. (19:49): When we actually know that kids become faster, stronger readers when they read a lot, large quantity of books that are ... or of words rather that are easy for them to read. So, sticking with books that are easy for them isn't always a cop out. Right? Colleen (20:05): Absolutely not. When our kids are picking up Magic Treehouse, when they've outgrown it two years before, but they want to go see what's up with Jack and Annie again because they have fond memories of them, or they see a picture book that's got stunning, stunning images in it. The text of it is simple, but that helps them see how the right word choice can be so powerful. When you have to, as an author, hone a book down to distill it down to the most powerful 300 words or less, it's really, really cool what you're able to project in the reader's. Yeah, that'd be super easy for a kid who's reading young adult levels to read at nine or 10 but it's so worth it. Sarah (21:08): Just because the book is written for older child doesn't mean that it is more complicated syntax or more challenging vocabulary. So a lot of picture books actually have more complicated language patterns than chapter books because chapter books of course are publishers are expecting to a child to read to themself as they're learning. They're expecting picture books to be read aloud by adult. (21:30): Similar thing happens. So we talked about this in the YA episode and I'll put that in the show notes. Middle grade books are written for ages eight to 12 usually. YA books are of course written for teenagers. So those are often put in a separate place in the library under it might have a sign that says "teens." So you would think, "Okay, the books in the teen section are going to be harder to read are more intellectually satisfying than middle grade," which is actually not the case. It's usually the content or the type of story that's being told that's for older kids, not the language. (22:04): So I think one of the things that I find really helpful and I found really helpful once my kids were reading fluently and they did start to want to read a lot and I was having trouble keeping up with them, is realizing that we could stay in middle grade for a really long time, and we're not losing out on any of the really good language or any of that great grammar and syntax and language patterns and all those good things. They were just as sophisticated and really well-written middle grade. Colleen (22:30): Yes, absolutely. The best thing about middle grade books too, especially the newer middle grade books, although there's so many great older ones as well, that the great thing about it is kids can start to see themselves in the pages. So for a kid who is gifted or twice exceptional, someone who is different, they see the world in a different way and people see them as a little bit quirky, a little bit not typical. They can find themselves in the pages of those books. (23:00): So one of the things that we can do as parents, as we're strewing things in front of our kids who are good readers is maybe introduce them to some books that have gifted characters in them, or quirky kids who are doing interesting things so that they can see some similarities between themselves and somebody that they've now fallen in love with between the pages of the book. There's some great people out there just even now writing about these kinds of people and characters. Sarah (23:31): Yeah. Do you have titles that come to mind for you as you're thinking about those kinds of books? Colleen (23:34): I do. I have some. There's a bunch. I have a post on my site that links to some different lists of books. Some of the older ones are Matilda, Wrinkle In Time. I love Millicent Min, Chasing Vermeer, The Penderwicks. Oh my gosh. The Penderwicks have great, great, bright, quirky characters in them. Mysterious Benedict Society, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Well, I don't love the writing all the time in that series. They're very interesting and innovative children. Gordon Korman writes a couple. He has a couple books. The one is called Ungifted. One is called Supergifted, one is called Schooled. So those are a couple that feature those characters, but then there's some picture books that I really loved that ... (24:20): So first of all, anything by Cynthia Rylant, usually there is a quirky or gifted character somewhere in Cynthia Rylant's books. Sarah (24:27): Is that right? Colleen (24:28): Yeah. Go read them with the different lens and you'll see some of the characters in there are just super empathetic, have like existential crises or then you've got the relatives came, the quirky family that are nose to toes and just appreciating the quirks about each other. Just so much fun, and I love those. We would read Cynthia Rylant all the time when I was in the classroom teaching gifted kids because she's just so, so amazing, I think. Sarah (25:00): I just love her work, but I've never made that connection. So that's cool. Colleen (25:03): Yeah. So yeah, there's so many different ones like that, that are fiction, but then you get into biographies and nonfiction about real people who did cool things. Then when you get to the young biographies, your kids are seeing those people as kids and that they were just doing kid things that maybe there was like a spark that led them down this path. (25:27): So by showing them the young biographies, even when they're older, helps them see those people as kids and then they can use their advanced ability if they're kind of hooked on somebody and go read a middle grade biography and then a young adult biography, and then an adult biography about the same person. So they're getting more and more in depth into this great person's life. Sarah (25:52): Yeah. They're then being mentored by somebody great from history. I love that about picture book biographies, and I've noticed that this last year as I've been reading picture book biographies even more than we used to with my young kids, realizing especially how many scientists and people in the field of science, how to spark at a very young age or had a way of seeing the world that was different than everybody else. (26:24): Okay, so here's another question we hear a lot, especially from those folks who have kids who are advanced readers or early readers and they're worried about how much their kids are reading. I know if you're listening to this and you don't have advanced readers or kids who are reading for pleasure, you're like, "Wow, what a hard problem to have. Your kids read too much." A lot of us do have kids who actually probably go, read so much that we start to wonder if we should do something about it like make them go outside and stand up to the sun for a minute. Colleen (26:58): Yes, but then if your kids are like buying, they're going to go out in the sun, my one, and then they'll read out in the sun. Sarah (27:04): I was going to say that with their book, right? Yes, one of my daughters who is such an avid bookworm, she will ... I'll say in the summertime especially, "Okay, you have got to go for a walk at least you have to move your body." So she'll be like, "Okay," and I'll see you're walking down the sidewalk in our neighborhood reading her book. I'm like, "Oh my goodness." What do you say to parents who worry that their kids are reading too much? That their kids aren't doing enough other things because they're always reading? Colleen (27:29): Yeah. That's a hard one because I was that kid, and it's so hard because I remember really bitterly being punished by getting my books taken away from me. I'm skewed in my own opinion of that because I was scarred as a child having books taken away from me. In all truth and reality, as long as we are encouraging our kids to have some kind of balance to their lives or as long as they have other things, I don't think there's a lot to worry about. (28:04): Now when they start shirking their duties or like not getting their schoolwork done, or they disappear because they're supposed to clean their room and it's been seven hours and nothing's been picked up but two books have been read, then you've got to step in and say, "Look, I need you to keep your door open and this needs to get done and then you can have your book back." I do the thing that I was never supposed to do, which is take away my kids' book, but there does have to be some balance. Sarah (28:33): You know what's interesting because I was just thinking about this yesterday. A friend of mine emailed me and asked me what to do about some of our kids who she worries are reading too much. A couple of things came to me. One is that I do actually think our kids, just like we do, you go through stages like you might have a month that you're in a funk or having a really hard time coping with something and reading could be a really good coping mechanism for a lot of our kids. (28:57): It's a really healthy one too because then they're actually putting on the shoes of somebody else and walking a mile in their shoes. That's a great coping strategy is to sort of look at somebody else instead of navel-gazing and looking at your own self. The other thing I was thinking of is that a lot of times when we are encouraging families to help their kids read more, so if you have kids who aren't reading enough or aren't reading at all for pleasure, one of the things we'll recommend is to have let's say a half an hour, or an hour, whatever time you want and say, "You don't get other options during this time. This is reading time. You can just lay on your bed or you can read or maybe do this at bedtime. Bedtime's at 8:00, but if you want to read you can keep your light on till 9:00 but you can only be reading, can't do video games or something." (29:41): So my thought was, actually if you have a child, I mean, too much of anything can obviously be a problem, right? If you are really concerned about your child reading too much, one healthier way to handle this rather than taking away a book is to say, "Okay, so from whatever time to whatever time from one to three, from whatever time you want to say, this is going to be a time of day where you're doing something besides reading." (30:05): Because I think to somebody who's an avid reader, it just doesn't make sense to them that like, "Why would I do anything else? If I love reading so much, that's of course what I want to do." They might also like to play basketball, but they don't know that because they're never going outside to shoot hoops. (30:22): So choosing that time and safeguarding it for them, but doing it in a way that respects their love of books, because if you ban the books or ban their reading, it's probably like you just said Colleen is probably going to go down and their mind is just being like this horrible misunderstanding like, "Nobody gets me." We really don't want our kids to feel like nobody gets me. We certainly don't want them to feel like, "My parents just don't understand me." Colleen (30:48): Yeah, and that's a really good point too. We want our kids to know we were on the same team. To your point about making sure that they don't feel misunderstood, I think any time with any kid, but especially as we're talking about those veracious readers, those gifted kids or individuals, especially with them, but really with any child, we want to be on their team and we want them to know that we're going to bat for them at this point. So level with them. (31:17): "Look, you haven't been outside in two days, why don't we all spend the next hour going for a walk in the woods or down the street or whatever. I haven't played basketball since I was 13. Let's go shoot, see if I can still handle it without breaking a finger." Do something together and then you can go your separate ways, or do something together and then go back in and say, "Hey, if you're not busy, I'm going to start dinner right now. You want to help me?" It naturally then leads into more togetherness or more time doing something different or, "Your sister was just about to go do that bath bomb kit we picked up on clearance, do you want to help her? Do you want to help me with dinner or is there something else you had planned?" (31:59): So again, the more options you're putting in their path, you're showing them the different things that they can do. It's just like choosing genres of books and things like that. Sarah (32:08): There is a link and I will put that in the show notes where our listeners can go to find more resources. Are there any other good resources for finding books? I think there's a book that you've recommended to me before. Colleen (32:18): Yeah, the book that I recommend to everybody who asks me about finding books for their gifted kids is a book that it's now in its third edition, but I don't know that it's going to be updated. Again, I'm not quite sure how old the author is, but I noticed it hasn't been updated since 2009. I still think it's a worthy resource because while it has book lists in the back, those are great and can get you started with different topics and things for your gifted readers. (32:44): The beginning of the book really talks about the idea of guiding readers who are really gifted in that area and how to navigate some of these things that we were talking about today in a little bit more in depth. The book is called, Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers. It's by Judith Wynn Halsted. You might want to check it out of your library first and just read that beginning part or take a look at some of the book lists and see if it would be helpful for you. (33:15): I like having it because I like to remind myself that it's going to be okay, like people have been before me and it just solidifies what reminds me what I'm telling other people that it is true and there are professionals who have been doing this a lot longer than me who agree with me on that, so it's going to be okay. Sarah (33:34): Yes. Well, that's it for my conversation with Colleen. I have all of the books that Colleen recommended during today's show are in the show notes at readaloudrevival.com/149. You'll also find a link to Colleen's website, Raising Lifelong Learners, an excellent resource, especially if you have gifted or twice exceptional kids. You'll find the book that she recommended, Some of My Best Friends Are Books there in the show notes as well. Again, that's at readaloudrevival.com/149. (34:10): 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. Frances (34:19): My name is Frances. Sarah (34:24): How old are you? Frances (34:26): Three. Sarah (34:26): Where do you live? Frances (34:28): Minnesota. Sarah (34:29): What's your favorite story? Frances (34:31): The Pet Project. Sarah (34:32): The Pet Project. What's your favorite part of The Pet Project? Frances (34:36): The tiger and the penguins. Sarah (34:38): Tiger and the penguins. Thanks, Nadia. What's your name? Speaker 6 (34:41): [Elloette 00:34:41]. Sarah (34:43): Elloette. How old are you? Speaker 6 (34:44): I'm turning one. Sarah (34:46): You're one? You're turning two, and where do you live? Speaker 6 (34:52): At Seattle, Washington. Sarah (34:53): Seattle, Washington. What's your favorite book? Speaker 6 (34:56): The Neighborhood Sing-Along. Sarah (34:58): The Neighborhood Sing-Along book? Speaker 6 (34:58): Yeah. Sarah (34:59): Yes, but I thought you were going to say Pie Is For Sharing. You liked that one too? Speaker 6 (35:03): Yeah. Wyatt (35:06): Hi, my name is Wyatt H. and I'm almost eight. My favorite book is Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare. I like it because it's about a boy that teaches an Indian how to read and he becomes good with it and his parents leave him alone in the [inaudible 00:35:24] cabin. Lilo (35:25): Hi, my name is Lilo. I am eight years old, almost nine. I live in Florida. My favorite book is Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I like the book because it's about a girl who tries to show on how much courage she has. She also lives in a town and she's very poor. Christopher (35:44): My name is Christopher Bastian. I am 11 years old. I live in South Carolina. I read Anger of the King by J.B. Shepherd. The algor in Anger of the King is action packed, interesting and full of during life or death decisions. I even stayed up one night reading it till I couldn't keep my eyes open. Ella (36:02): Hello. My name is Ella and I live in Alaska and I'm five years old. My favorite book is Red Rosa Capri and Harry Potter. Amalia (36:22): My name is Amalia, and I live in Maine. I'm six years old. My favorite book is the Magic Treehouse Book, because I want to go to new places. Speaker 13 (36:35): What's your name? Evelyn (36:36): Evelyn. Speaker 13 (36:36): How old are you? Evelyn (36:36): Two and a half. Speaker 13 (36:42): Where do you live? Evelyn (36:42): Tennessee. Speaker 13 (36:46): Tennessee? What's your favorite book? Evelyn (36:48): I like this all. Speaker 13 (36:49): Yeah. What's your favorite book? Evelyn (36:54): Peter Rabbit. Speaker 13 (36:55): Why do you like Peter Rabbit? Evelyn (36:56): Because Peter's house has a baby. Speaker 13 (37:01): Yeah. Evelyn (37:02): Lots of pictures. Speaker 13 (37:04): What's your name? Gavin (37:05): Gavin. Speaker 13 (37:07): How old are you? Gavin (37:07): Four. Four and a half. Speaker 13 (37:11): Where do you live? Gavin (37:14): Tennessee. Speaker 13 (37:14): What's your favorite book? Gavin (37:18): Julia's House for Lost Creatures. Speaker 13 (37:20): Why do you like that book? Gavin (37:22): Because it's awesome. Maddy (37:25): Hi. My name is Maddy. I'm 11 years old, and I live in Tennessee. My favorite book is Harry Potter, because it's adventurous. Sarah (37:37): Excellent. Thank you. Thank you kids. As always, I just a love listening to your messages, so I appreciate you taking the time to leave them. If your kids would like to tell us about books they've been loving lately, go to readaloudrevival.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see a button where you can leave a voicemail. We edit those and clean them up, so don't worry about them being perfect, or if your child needs to repeat after you or anything like that, we can clean it up on our end. We love to hear from your kids. (38:08): The links to everything we mentioned in today's show can be found at readaloudrevival.com/149. That's it for this week. We'll be back in a couple of weeks with another episode of the podcast. In the meantime, you know what to do. Go make meaningful and lasting connections with your kids through books.