“Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever” by Mem Fox
Book #2 for 2026
If you’ve been following me for awhile, you already know that I’m a big proponent of reading aloud. We read/listen to books about 5 nights per week and on most of our road trips we listen to Audiobooks. It’s become part of our family culture.
In my free time, I love reading books about reading books. I always find a least a few titles to add to our TBR list.
This book was very accessible and I finished it quickly. It was aimed at educators and parents of young children. If your kids are older and you’re not obsessed with books about reading aloud it’s probably not a book I’d recommend. If you have young children or you work in the field of education or work with young children, you will probably enjoy this book. However, I feel like “The Read-Aloud Family” by Sarah Mackenzie and Honey for a Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt are better books overall.
Here are my favorite quotes from the book:
“But if every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to children, and if every parent – and every adult caring for a child – read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in their lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.” pg. 12
“When we’re deciding whether to borrow or buy a book, the best way to sift its contents and discover the essence of its goodness, as well as its impurities, is – surprise! – to read it aloud… …It won’t be difficult deciding which books to take home. The really good ones won’t let us leave without them.” pg. 133
📚 I hope you are enjoying a good book right now!
heavens to betty 
As a youngster, I was a popular babysitter for a couple of families and I loved reading to the kids.
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Reading to the kids was probably one of the reasons you were so popular! I worked as a nanny for a family when I was in my 20s and I read a chapter of “Charlotte‘s Web” to the kids every night that I was putting them to bed. One day their mom asked me what gave me the idea to read them a chapter of that book? She said they absolutely loved it and wouldn’t stop talking about it! They were an affluent family, and I don’t think either of the parents read to the children.
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Possibly Betty but I just like engaging you minds.
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I spent many hours reading aloud to my children. They all have professional jobs, but more than that, they are good people. Reading books to them was a joy in life – for all of us!
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It was so sad to read stories of people who didn’t realize the importance of reading in this book: a father shopping for a birthday gift for his 4 year old who said, why would I get them books when they can’t read yet? A mom who wouldn’t keep books in the house because they collect too much dust. A parent who inquired as to where she could find books to read to her child.
I had a similar experience volunteering at a library book sale when a toddler was searching through the stacks of books, I picked one out to show him and his mother said (rather adamantly), “Oh we’re not getting any books for him, he can’t read.” 🤦🏻♀️
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