The Superpower that Might Matter Most by Richard Glover SMH Spectrum

Reading books to children is good for everyone involved.

I'm giving them a gift.

Later they will also read to themselves, way past bedtime, pretending to be asleep before slipping the light back on and feasting on one, or five, more chapters.

Thank you, Richard Glover, for sharing the joy and importance of reading aloud to your precious grandchildren. This piece, by Richard Glover in the Sydney Morning Herald today (12th July 2025 Subscriber link), is a perfect follow on from another that appeared last Saturday "Is it goodnight for the bedtime story?" by Lauren Ironmonger. (SMH Subscriber link) and from my blog post where I responded to another SMH piece entitled "The Final Chapter". 

If I could make one change to the heading of this SMH Spectrum piece, I would delete the word MIGHT because this does matter and it matters SO much. Sorry for all the shouting.

So, thinking about this topic first off, I am going to share a couple of personal examples from just this week. 

Example one: Lifeline run bookfairs in my area four times each year and I try to attend all of them. I especially love going through all the endless boxes of children's books because I find treasures but even more, I love doing this when I have a purpose. This week my friend needed books for her grandkid's preschool which is in a small, remote, northern NSW town. Easy! I found 35 fantastic picture books for just AUS$1 each. I know lots of these will now be read aloud to kids in the preschool and hopefully, if they have a home lending program, which you find in some preschools, a few of these books might even feature as nighttime read alouds - well that's my dream. It was also wonderful to see so many people at the fair and especially young mothers with tiny children filling up bags and strollers with piles of books.

Second example: Another friend of mine spends one day a week with her great nephew. He recently turned one. When my friend was a child, her dad read aloud every night so it is very natural for the aunt to read to this little fellow AND their house is filled with books AND even better this young fellow has learned one very important word - BOOK. He is so happy when his mum or dad or my friend sit with him on the lounge to read and reread his own favourite books. 

Third example: Another grandmother friend of mine asked her now 21-year-old granddaughter if there was a book she would like. This grandmother is a former bookseller and is a book reviewer and also a children's literature academic. Her house is filled to the brim with books. Her granddaughter asked for a specific book but she didn't remember the title - just the essence of the story - luckily this fragment was enough for her grandmother. The book was located and special memories of reading this book over a decade ago were shared. (If you are curious I have put the cover of this book at the bottom of this post).

Parents - can I just say you are truly missing out on something so easy to do with your child and if you borrow books from a library this a FREE activity and it is something you can do over and over again and you will build a beautiful relationship with your young reading companion and WOW isn't this so much better than screen time. AND this is the kind of activity, reading aloud to your child every day, that can easily fit into your daily routine - surely you have ten minutes to read a picture book. I am going to say that again - surely you have ten minutes to read a book to your child AND this is an activity that can become addictive in absolutely the best sense of that word. 

One of the biggest things I miss from working in my former school library, now that I have retired, is reading aloud to the children (of all ages from 5-12). Just like Richard, I used to love using all the voices in books. This week I talked about or revisited some old books that I read hundreds of times: The Pumpkin Man and the Crafty Creeper (Margaret Mahy); Jandy Malone and the Nine O'Clock Tiger (Barbara Bolton); O'Diddy (Joceyln Stevenson); Jeremiah in the Dark Woods (Alan Ahlberg); and of course, my all-time best ever read aloud Chilly Billy (Peter Mayle) and many many more.

I always gift books to new families in the hope that, in these families, reading a book will become a natural part of every day. This week I also talked about the revised book from Megan Daley - Raising Readers - a must read book for all parents.

Here are a few quotes from Richard Glover:

• "Oh my god, I love reading aloud."
• "Who doesn't like reading books to kids?"
• "Fun for me is precisely the phrase I'd use, whether it's the memories of reading to my own children decades ago or reading to those children's children. Often the same books, the pages all torn and tatty."
• (I need to say it is a wonderful thing to see a book all torn and tatty because this is a book that has 'lived' and not lingered on a shelf).
• "What's so good about reading aloud? The child ... is sitting still ... sitting calmy, head leaning on your shoulder, entranced. What's not to love?"
• "Books give you a shortcut into understanding the personality of the child."
• "One of the defining divisions of the future, some say, will be between those who have the concentration span to read a book (and therefore complete other life tasks) and those who need fresh stimulation every few minutes."
• "Together with their parents, I may be helping develop the one superpower that will matter."

I do wish, in a way, that Richard had not cited Toby by Margaret Wild as an example - although of course his piece is personal. I love that he shared an authentic reading experience but this is a book that, as a parent, you do need to read it first just to check that it is okay for your child. I worked with a colleague years ago who lost a family dog who looked just like Toby. She couldn't even pick up this book or put it back on a shelf. 

Richard also mentions (in case you are compiling a list) The Gruffalo (Julia Donaldson); Big Ted (a book based on the television program Play School); and Where the wild things are (Maurice Sendak)

I have been 'banging on" about this topic for years. My blog is called Momotimetoread because I had way too many kindy kids returning books to my school library only to tell me 'mummy or daddy or whoever didn't have time to read it!'  That is heart wrenching and I am going to say something even stronger - not reading to your child is a form of terrible neglect.

POST UPDATE - check out the blog post from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything. Her response reflects her deep thinking and experience with this important topic of reading aloud to children (of all ages). 

Reading with children is precious time, time that you will not get back!

Here are a few recent posts about the importance of reading to children:

• December 10, 2023, Read aloud to your child every day
• July 5, 2025, The Final Chapter SMH Good Weekend Magazine
• November 21, 2019 Reading to preschoolers (part four) and part five
• February 16, 2024, Reading is in the news they say we need a revolution - lets revolt!
• February 7, 2024, 1000 books before school

Read more about Little Blue here

If you find Little Blue why not grab a willow pattern plate to show your child and this book:

Read aloud to your child every day!

 

Seven very important words - Read aloud to your child every day!

#readaloudtoyourchildeveryday 

Yesterday I went to a baby shower, and I was thrilled to see that the new mum-to-be was gifted several children's books (a big pile from me too, of course) including Mem Fox Time for Bed; books from the That's not my series; and Magic Beach by Alison Lester. The sister of the mum-to-be organised a Nursery Rhyme quiz but only the older family members and friends had any idea about these famous rhymes. I was pleased that I also gifted the new baby a large Nursery Rhyme book, but I do hope the young friends also discover these and read them aloud when they start their own family. 

See the full list of 81 titles here

Last week I read about this wonderful promotion by the CBCA in Tasmania. I am in awe of this idea and huge initiative. I am sure the CBCA in Tasmania are just a small organisation but they have created an eye-catching banner (and added my logo WOW). They are aiming to raise awareness far and wide about the vital importance of reading to children every day. I hope other branches of the CBCA take up this idea too!

Years ago, when I spoke to groups of new parents in my school I always shared a tiny book by Rosemary Wells and now I quote part of her text on every baby card.

Read to your bunny often,

It's twenty minutes of fun. 

It's twenty minutes of moonlight, 

And twenty minutes of sun. 

Twenty old-favorite minutes, 

Twenty minutes brand-new, 

Read to your bunny often, 

And . . . 

Your bunny will read to you.

"The Tasmanian Branch, Children’s Book Council of Australia, partnering with Toast for Kids Charity Inc., are proud to launch the national campaign “Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”, a simple message encouraging parents, grandparents, siblings and carers to read to their children for their literary growth and education; investing in their future.

Recently released NAPLAN data (see ABC News report) showed that one in three school students throughout Australia are not meeting minimum numeracy and literacy expectations, and one in ten are so far behind they need additional support. Furthermore, over decades Tasmania continues to suffer from an illiteracy rate of 50%. Informed by these facts, we are championing our cause to develop a culture of “Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”, locally, state-wide and nationally.

We are commencing a national campaign, reaching out to institutes, governments, schools, parent groups, agencies, not for profits, speech pathologists, writers’ groups, book and reading advocates, presenting the opportunity to partner with the effort, adopting and promoting the one message: 

“Read Aloud to Your Child Every Day”."

I have talked about this issue of reading to children in previous posts:

Can you see the ducks Mummy?

In that post I said: I dream of creating an advertising campaign where I share the importance of reading to and with children and the importance of talking to children and the importance of putting that phone away so parents, and other adults can pay attention to their child. I deeply worry about the generation of children who have been ignored while their parents give all of their focus to small screens. 

Reading to Preschoolers - five blog posts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Take a look at the ten read aloud commandments from Mem Fox (author of Possum Magic and Koala Lou and heaps of other wonderful books). 

Here is my former library slogan (I saw it in a Canadian elementary school in 1994):

Now for some books for parents. Many of the really good ones are sadly long out of print - Babies need books by Dorothy Butler; and Reading Magic by Mem Fox. These three are worth finding:

Read more here

Read my blog post about Raising Readers

I am including this even though I have not read it myself but the authors are very well respected.