the act of reading together

Sally Rosenbaum 

The act of reading together secures people to one another,
creating order and connections as if we were quilt squares tacked together with threads made of stories.

Words are as wild as rocky peaks. They're as smooth as a millpond and as sunny as a day in a meadow. Words are beautiful things, said the writer Brian Jacques. Words are beautiful things. They hold meaning, they reveal meaning, and they give us the power to express meaning. Words are also keys that unlock the world. Every time we read a book to a child, we are holding out a new box of interesting and useful keys for them to collect: a tumble of shapes and colors in which they may discover vintage keys . . . . The variety of keys they find, by its very existence, hints at the wideness of possibility in the world.  

Reading aloud is a small thing, yet profound. To read to someone you love is the simplest of gifts, and one of the greatest. All that is required for a long, happy string of enchanted hours is for someone to take the trouble to make it happen. Surely that is something we can aspire to do. With love.

~ Meghan Cox Gurdon
The Enchanted Hour