The Read-Aloud Handbook

Written by Dr. Jerry Stein

Jim Trelease is the American troubadour of reading out loud to children. His website is a beehive of activity to support reading. For those who believe that reading is the job of schools and teachers, Trelease points out that by the age of six a child has been in school for a mere 700 hours but the same child has spent 52,000 hours outside of school.  In other words, there are exponentially greater opportunities for children to become a part of a world of reading and to be read aloud to at home than at school. Thus educational outcomes for children fully emerge from children’s experiences in the home.

In the introduction of his book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, Trelease suggests that regardless of income or background, the key factor is “almost always a parent or relative- someone close to the child in the early years” who reads to them and “does the right things at the right time.”  Reading out loud to children improves their ability to read, write, speak, listen, and also increases their attention span.  Reading out loud also positively shapes children’s attitudes toward learning.

Trelease draws strongly on the work of Hart and Risley and agrees with them that the number and kinds of words children hear in the home generally varies by socioeconomic status.  He also agrees that the number and variety of words a child has heard and learned in the home before entering a school building is the biggest predictor of the extent of a child’s vocabulary and therefore a big predictor of school success.

Trelease argues that “reading is at the heart of education” and is “the single most important social factor in American life today” (p. xxiv) – because without reading, children have next to no chance to succeed in the modern world.