Every Book is a Mystery

During 4th grade, I noticed that my son was reading books, memorizing them actually, but not really seeing anything important that is going on.   I told him that every book is a mystery to be solved, and that he needed to pay attention to the clues to see where the story is heading.

I thought I invented this.

I told this to my second grade child and he responded "My teacher already told me this."   Does she read my articles?

It turns out that there is a book called The Read-Aloud Handbook: Seventh Edition by Jim Trelease that describes this and more.

Here is Amazon's description:

Recommended by "Dear Abby" upon its first publication in 1982, millions of parents and educators have turned to Jim Trelease’s beloved classic for more than three decades to help countless children become avid readers through awakening their imaginations and improving their language skills. It has also been a staple in schools of education for new teachers. This updated edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook discusses the benefits, the rewards, and the importance of reading aloud to children of a new generation. Supported by delightful anecdotes as well as the latest research (including the good and bad news on digital learning), The Read-Aloud Handbook offers proven techniques and strategies for helping children discover the pleasures of reading and setting them on the road to becoming lifelong readers.

Buy the book.

If any readers have already used this book, feel free to comment.  I expect no comments.  There are no good resources on the internet or elsewhere under the heading of "How to be a Good Academic Parent" outside of Finland so how would anyone know?

Look at this presentation by Dan McKey.   It's very inspiring, it's got a great list of books for 2nd and 3rd grade, and the slides don't have any content because he talked his way through the presentation.  If the reading program at your child's school is not strong, then you desperately need the missing content of this presentation.  This presentation was given at the Reading Recovery conference.  The next one is February 6th through 8th in Columbus Ohio.  Are there any readers in Columbus Ohio, and if there are, could one of you sneak into this conference and report back to me?