World Read Aloud Day 2020

In honor of World Read Aloud Day, here are two of our all time favorite picture books to read out loud:

1) Llama Destroys the World by Jonathan Stutzman and illustrated by Heather Fox

2) xo, ox by Adam Rex and illustrated by Scott Campbell

I watched this fantastic webinar with Mac Barnett (through 12x12 picture book challenge) in which he talked about how a picture book writer needs to leave room or ‘holes’ for the illustrator and also ‘holes’ for the reader and the ones being read to for them to fill in as the book is being read. I thought it was a brilliant thought that as a writer but not illustrator, I haven’t thought about before. There’s something to be said about giving up that control over one’s work, but as I am as of yet unpublished, I haven’t had to relinquish yet.

On that same note, I was watching the 12 x12 replay webinar with Andrea Loney who said, “Picture books are written to be performed.” And she’s right. There’s so much more we see in a picture book when we read it out loud as a shared experience. And I’ll always love reading books aloud with my kids and husband. Sometimes we’ll take turns reading a chapter book to each other, and sometimes we’ll read our own writing to each other. Either way since w are all bookworms and writers, we love the shared experience. And we learn a lot about what needs to be ‘fixed’ in our stories when we read them out loud.

So, I encourage you, even if your kids are older now, go ahead, pull out a book and do a little read aloud with them. Even if it isn’t bedtime yet. :D