An award-winning journalist and literacy advocate provides a clear,
step-by-step guide to helping your child thrive as a reader and a
learner.
When her child went off to school, Maya Smart was shocked to discover
that a good education in America is a long shot, in ways that few
parents fully appreciate. Our current approach to literacy offers too
little, too late, and attempting to play catch-up when our kids get to
kindergarten can no longer be our default strategy. We have to start at
the top. The brain architecture for reading develops rapidly during
infancy, and early language experiences are critical to building it.
That means parents' work as children's first teachers begins from day
one too--and we need deeper knowledge to play our positions.
Reading for Our Lives challenges the bath-book-bed mantra and the idea
that reading aloud to our kids is enough to ensure school readiness.
Instead, it gives parents easy, immediate, and accessible ways to
nurture language and literacy development from the start. Through
personal stories, historical accounts, scholarly research, and practical
tips, this book presents the life-and-death urgency of literacy,
investigates inequity in reading achievement, and illuminates a path to
a true, transformative education for all.