Reading & Parenting

“Say hi to Grandma” — and then thirty awkward seconds of a child staring at the screen, unsure what to say next. A picture book can rescue that call.

Type a word into a translation app, and you get an answer in half a second. So what’s left for a picture book to teach?

You ask a question in Japanese. The answer comes back in English. It happens again the next day, and the day after that — and it’s easy to start reading it as a sign something’s going wrong.

One child reads three picture books in the middle of a busy afternoon of play. Another reads just one, quietly, right before bed. Which one is more likely to remember what they read?

Two kids, same home, same amount of exposure — and somehow, wildly different comfort levels in the family’s home language. It’s more common than it looks from the outside.

Once a child starts school and can sound out words on their own, it’s tempting to think read-aloud time is done. Is it, though?

Raising a child in more than one language sounds like it should require flashcards, apps, maybe a tutor. Often, the most effective tool is already sitting on the shelf.

Only about one in four adults reads even a single book a month. So why do so many of us still want our kids to grow up loving books?