Volume 38 Nº 2: July 2002

The power and the story: how reading aloud to children will change their lives forever

Mem Fox

Delivered at the biennial conference of the Hunter Children's Services Forum Conference, 'Children, Families and Communities Growing Together', 25 May 2002.

My father's father was an atheist and a journalist. This would be of no interest at all in the circumstances except that my mother's father happened to be a Methodist - and a minister, which must have made communication between my grandfathers rather amusing. Even my great-grandfather was a Methodist minister and several of my great-uncles, also. And both my mother and father were missionaries in Zimbabwe. I'm telling you all this merely to explain why it's so impossible for me not to preach a sermon when I find myself standing like this, at a podium.

If we read aloud to our children, from the day they're born until they go to school - and by 'read aloud' I mean three stories a day which will take between ten to fifteen minutes - we will change their lives forever on three different levels. First, we'll make them very smart, and I'll explain why in minute. Second, we'll form a fabulous attachment to them that will be incredibly important for their emotional development and peace of mind both as children now, and as adults, later. And thirdly, many of them will learn to read before school, without a single lesson. And even if they don't learn to read before school they'll learn to read quickly, easily and happily in their first year at school.

Amongst Mem Fox's best-known children's books are Possum magic, time for bed and Koala Lou. Her books for adults include Radical reflections: passionate opinions on teaching, learning and living and her most recent, Reading magic (2001).