Literacy Talks

Reading about Reading: The Books that Make A Professional Difference

April 20, 2022 Reading Horizons Season 1 Episode 7
Literacy Talks
Reading about Reading: The Books that Make A Professional Difference
Show Notes Transcript

If you love teaching reading, and you love reading, this episode of Literacy Talks is for you! Our trio talks in-depth about the professional books that have inspired them, informed their practice, and reaffirmed their commitment to helping every student read proficiently. From David Kilpatrick’s seminal work, Essentials for Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties to Reading for Life by Lyn Stone, you’ll come away with must-read, must-share books to share with your reading colleagues.

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Narrator:

Hello literacy leaders and champions. Welcome to literacy talks. We are so excited to welcome you to this podcast series from Reading Horizons dedicated to exploring the ideas, trends, insights and practical issues that will help us all improve our professional practice in teaching reading, are a series host is Stacy Hurst, professor at Southern Utah University and Chief Academic Officer at Reading Horizons where reading momentum begins. Joining Stacy are Donell Pons, a recognized expert in literacy and special education and Lindsay Kemeny, a Utah based elementary classroom teacher. Today's topic is books, the books that have and continue to have an impact on our hosts approach to teaching reading. Let's get started.

Donell Pons:

Welcome to

Unknown:

another episode of literacy talks. I'm Stacy Hurst and I am here with Danelle pons and Lindsey Kemeny, where we talk a lot about literacy. So we're happy to have you along for the conversation. And today we have a really fun topic, it was Lindsay's turn to choose. So I'm gonna let her introduce it for us.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Yes. Okay. I'm excited about today's topic. The three of us have a lot in common, but one of the things we have in common is we all are lifelong learners. And we love reading. And we're constantly reading, especially about reading, because we're all kind of obsessed with literacy. So I thought it would be fun to talk about that today. And it's just like, anytime the three of us get together when we go away, you know, to work on a project over the weekend or something. We all bring like either a suitcase or a bag just full of books. And now we've gotten smart, at least where we're like, oh, you know, who's got modes of ordering? Okay, who's bringing Kilpatrick a lot, you know, I'll bring the source book. Okay, great. And we kind of divide it out. But and then Stacey, I remember you telling a story. Once where while you were moving, and you were talking about how all your friends and family were so helpful, are so willing to help you move until they realized they remembered all

Unknown:

your books, right? Yeah, then they were not so excited about it.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Yes. Anyways, we have just different things about books we're going to talk about today. And so my first question is, what is your favorite book on literacy? And why is it your favorite book, you can share a quote if you want or you don't have to, but let's each share one of our favorite books. And so Danelle, let's start with you.

Donell Pons:

Okay, great. Ah, Lindsey. Okay, this was tough. This was really, really tough. And so I noticed that when you had asked this question, I wrote down everything. You can't do that. There are some really good ones. essentials of assessing preventing and overcoming reading difficulties by Dr. David Kilpatrick, I have to say overall, he just kind of touches and reaches everything, but for really reaching into the heart and soul of reading for me it Stanislaus to hain, and then I've read all of his but the one that just really resonates with me, in many ways, is how we learn. That's one of his books. He's written many, like I say, but he's got a quote out of here, because you also said we could quote something and I think this is just so amazing. And it Stan is laws quoting Vladimir and I don't know how you want to say it. But if it's no Volkoff to you, or nubuck of however you want to say it, and he's quoting him, and he says, We are absurdly accustomed to the miracle of a few written signs, being able to contain immortal imagery, in evolutions of thought new worlds with live people speaking weeping laughing. What if we wake awake one day, all of us and find ourselves utterly unable to read?

Lindsay Kemeny:

Wow, yes. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. You didn't choose this one. But like, when I was looking at these questions myself, and I came up with the questions, right and sent them to you. And then I was thinking about them myself. And I'm like, I can't answer this. Like what? Who asked this? How do you just pick one right now? Okay, Stacy, let's go to you. Oh, gosh,

Unknown:

and you're right. I think that's impossible. So the short answer would be I don't have just one. But I really loved Proust and the squid. Proust. I, how do you say this? Dunno, I've heard Proust a lot. i Okay. Anyways, yeah, no, and oh, W usually says Ow. So, anyway, preusse I will say, Proust and the squid by Maryanne Wolf. And the the title, the subtitle is the story and science of the reading brain. And Maryanne wolf does such a good job of telling the story of the reading brain something that's usually really dense with a lot of sophisticated vocabulary words, which she also uses. But I did build my vocabulary when I read The book but I feel like that one was really fairly early in my career about I think I found a year after she published it or something. And the the preface, this is the first sentence, guys, I have lived my life in the service of words, finding where they hide in the convoluted recesses of the brain, studying their layers of meaning and form and teaching their secrets to the young hook. She's amazing. I also

Lindsay Kemeny:

love listening to her present, because she's just Yes, really animated and engaged. Almost right. Okay, well, my favorite isn't specifically on literacy. But there's a lot of literacy. And I guess it's talking about different areas, but explicit instruction by Dr. Anita Archer, who's like my teacher hero. And it talks a lot about designing lessons and organizing your instruction and eliciting responses. And I love her. She says, I do something, you do something, I do something, you do something. And I just love that. And so I just apply so many of those principles in my teaching. And I feel like I don't know, I just love Anita Archer, every time I watch her or when I read this book and look at it again. I just learned something new. There's just so many good nuggets that you can apply to your teaching, especially of literacy. Yeah, you

Unknown:

can't see anything she's doing like she's engaging in the true sense of the word.

Lindsay Kemeny:

It's funny because all three of those actually I like listening to all three at least Stanislaus to Hain also, it's fun to listen to his accent when he presented. Yeah, about Maryanne Wolf, and any archers great presenter too. Okay, so let's go to our next one, which is what book has had the greatest impact on your teaching? And why which that's really hard to because we could use, you know, what we just did? Like, are our favorite, it might be the same? I don't know. So who wants to go first?

Unknown:

I can go first, if you don't mind? Because I do have a ready answer for this one. Although there are many books that continue to impact my teaching. But I have had the opportunity to reflect on this a lot. But I read all 408 pages of the National Reading panels report. Wow, my first year of teaching, and that actually, I think that had the greatest impact on my teaching. One way that it did is because I realized I wasn't teaching phonics in the way that I should. I had some phonics instruction, but it was very balanced literacy approach. And it wasn't enough. So that really led me to so many places, but I found a curriculum that I loved. And that checked all the boxes, right? And then that led me to working with that curriculum a little more closely. And then also, I think the most important impact that it had and continues to have on my career is that it did ground me in my teaching in the science of reading. It wasn't, you know, a faddish book that I read or center ideas, which I did read plenty of books about that. But I think it continues to impact what I do, because I trust the science because I've applied it.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Well, Stacey, like what a wonderful gift, you know, that you had that you said, your first year of teaching, you read that? That's amazing. So you just had this solid base, this knowledge base, and what a gift for you and your students, you know, I mean, I went down a different path, right, where I didn't learn about this until much more recently, so my early years of teaching, were all grounded in things that were not aligned with the science. So that

Unknown:

Oh, I had plenty of that too, don't worry, but it did set a good precedent. And I'm just gonna I don't want to take all the time. But I'm going to mention this, because it's really important to me. And I think that that's why we need to point people to the science. I really feel like our pre service teachers. Guess why I read the National Reading Panel, because I have another degree in sociology where we learned about research, nowhere in my pre service education, do we even talk about research. And so I am so grateful for that other degree, although I never really used it, other than it's informed my life a lot, but I think that sad and we need to change that. And luckily, we are we hear that all the time. We're referring to the science. So anyway, thank you for coming to my TED Talk. I'm done now.

Lindsay Kemeny:

I love it. Okay, Darnell, how about you?

Donell Pons:

Yeah, I was just thinking, I have to go with and then I might, I might have to do to here again, overcoming dyslexia. And I'm gonna say that because I had two struggling readers in my home, one really struggling and a husband who has struggled with reading. And this was the first time that I picked up a book and they were speaking to my experience, and I had done so much Searching to try to find information. I'd already been through a really fantastic dual master's program, special education certification and didn't get anything I needed for these individuals who were struggling with what I thought was the basic skill of reading. And I was still like, what's going on? How can I get help and overcoming dyslexia? Dr. Sally Shaywitz just laid it down and laid it out. Clearly, it was a game changer, a life changer, a game changer changed not only my family's lives, and our experience, but it changed my students, all those that I would come in contact with later. You know, it's interesting. I was just thinking the other day about how much I have my life I have spent doing this, this is my work. And you know, I think it's like the soliloquy of the life's work about helping people come to reading and I think Shaywitz for me, that just kind of summed up the whole thing. Overcoming dyslexia.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Well, Darnell, we have another thing in common because guess what, I chose the same one. Here overcoming dyslexia, Sally Shaywitz, because that is what that's kind of the first book I read that led me on my journey. Of course, it was my son that was diagnosed with dyslexia. And this is one of the first books I picked up that really started you know, I started to learn what do Dyslexics need to learn to read? And that leads me to what everyone needs to learn to read. So and then the next book I read after this are one of the ones was the multi sensory teaching of basic language skills do you guys have, have you guys read them now. So that is like a huge textbook was like ad dollars. And that, you know, similar to Stacey, how you're saying the national reading panel just gave you this, you know, all this knowledge that took me, you know, with my teaching, just really how to do everything, piece by piece, and kind of the knowledge and the research with each, you know, component of reading. So those two are the greatest impact for me. Okay, well, what about those that are new to the science of reading? So we're talking about all these different books, but maybe there's a particular book that's, you know, best for someone new to the science of reading. So what do you have suggestions for that?

Unknown:

My students are all new to the science of reading my college students. And I use the core teaching reading source book. He gives the why and the science behind it, but also very practical application resources as well. I think that's a good place to start.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Great. Yeah, I have that one. I love that one, too. Okay, Darnell, what about you?

Donell Pons:

The one that I think just would be on everybody's desk is essentials. It should be on everybody who comes in contact with students should have this on their desk? Yeah. All right essentials of assessing and preventing and overcoming reading difficulties by Dr. David Kilpatrick, for me, he just sums up so much. If somebody like has a question for me, and immediately I want to get that precise answer for them. I can just thumb through the page. And I've got it. Right. Or what's the research on that? I know, Kilpatrick's already done the hard legwork for me. And I'll just look it up. And he's got it. So I've got three sources as to that research. So you've we've made the statement, how do we know that's important? I'll let me grab the research. So that's what I really liked about Essentials is because you can get a lot of different pieces from different places. What I have found over time, is that if I want to go one place to get to all of those sources right away, I can usually find it here in essentials, besides all the good information that it has. It's a good resource that way too.

Unknown:

And I you know, I would agree with that. It's a good beginning ish one. Because what he does, he does so well, you can tell he has a background in cognitive psychology, because he's always revisiting, I felt like there was the cumulative review throughout that book. And I knew more after reading it, I didn't feel like I had to go back and revisit it as much, although it's useful for that

Lindsay Kemeny:

to the one I suggest it just came out, I think, last year, and it's called the art and science of teaching primary reading by Christopher set. Oh, you have it to Stacey. Yes. I

Unknown:

assigned that to my students to oh,

Lindsay Kemeny:

this is so great. I mean, it's just easy to understand terms. You know, he goes through each component of literacies talks about phonics. He talks about oral language, comprehension, vocabulary, everything. And I just feel like he's really succinct. And I really appreciate that. And then he gives like application in each chapter. So I really, I love this one. I think it's perfect for beginners. And another one, I think, okay, see, I'm like doing too on a lot of mine clicking the site. Another one I really like is reading for life by Lynn stone. Same kind of thing where she's really to the point. She also has a section I love where it's just kind of telling who's who in the literacy world and kind of like what they contributed. And so I think that is really helpful to especially those that are new to this information.

Unknown:

I mentioned this in edwebinar that Daniel and I just did, but I did assign my students the art and science of teaching primary reading. But also I don't know if you realize that Lindsey, but you just referenced two international authors. Yeah. Christopher stitches from England and Lynn stone is Australians. Yeah. Oh, the English speaking countries

Narrator:

are their books and authors that have had an important impact on your teaching. Share your favorite professional reads with us and keep current with everything literacy at reading horizons.com/reading-resources.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Okay, share a book that you wish you had two copies of

Donell Pons:

everything. I confess to having multiple copies of a lot of these already. Oh, wish I did I already did

Lindsay Kemeny:

you already do.

Unknown:

I do too. And then I get the updated I have to speech to print multisensory. Every time there's a new edition, overcoming dyslexia, because you get the new edition, you get the new ones too. Yeah,

Donell Pons:

you give them away. I give them away to to educators. I've done that. Oh, good

Lindsay Kemeny:

for you. I wouldn't dare give mine away. I do I get an extra copy. But

Unknown:

yeah, that's, I have multiple editions of the teaching reading source book, when I do give that away frequently, but

Lindsay Kemeny:

I got that one for free. Because someone at my school was going to throw it away. Oh, and and she was going through all the books in her office and getting rid of them. And I'm like, Oh, can I just take a look at these books. And then I just saw teaching Sourcebook and I saw a few others like road to the code and few others. I'm like, Okay, I'll just hoard books, you know, anyway. Okay. Is there a book that you struggled to get through? And what was it?

Donell Pons:

You know, not on the subject of reading? And when I looked at that question, Linda thought, and that's a really good question. Because you would think there would be a dud in there now and then right, that the one you just couldn't make your way through. What's really interesting is, none of these have been like that. And even some have said, you know, Seidenberg is not for the faint of heart, thoroughly enjoyed. And it found myself laughing at parts of it, right? Because even though a lot of it, I'm sure he didn't mean for you to laugh right out loud, but

Unknown:

that's a comedian.

Donell Pons:

But I think that was a really good question. And I struggled to think of when I couldn't make my way through. So that tells me a few things. One is that when folks get down to writing a book about this, they know their subject. That's one, right. And I also appreciate the fact that we have a lot of so called specialists, I would say. So a lot of them kind of focus in on an area of focus. And so you're not really overlapping a lot, which is also interesting, even though we're all talking about the same subject, a lot of these books, you're getting something different from all of them, which I found fascinating. What do you think, Stacy to be? You

Unknown:

know, I had this when you started talking, I was like, that was exactly my thought process. I actually can't name a book about reading that I struggled to get through. Yeah. And I think that also speaks to the interest of the reader to true because we've read some pretty dense stuff. When we're talking about neuro psychology and the way the brain is wired. There are words I've never seen in print before. But when you have that interest, like you're into it, but I did think of a book that wasn't related to reading that I couldn't read. I could not do it. And I'm gonna mention it. We can cut this out if we want to, but it was out of Africa. I love the movie. And the book, you guys is literally like maybe 150 pages, I could not read it. It was nothing like the movie. I'm just saying, I do not recommend that book.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Here's the thing. I think the fact that you guys never struggled through a book really says a lot about you guys. Me on the other hand, I do have one that I struggle with. And it's not because Okay, so I don't think someone's going to struggle through a book because it's a dead, I think it's going to be on the reader. So this is on me. Very, very humble. But yes, the first time I tried to read language at the speed of sites by Mark Seidenberg. And I kind of stopped halfway. Now, I didn't have the background knowledge totally for it, because it was still a little new to me the science of reading and everything, right? So I haven't known about it as long as you guys. So I struggled. And then I remember just last year, I was taking this course through the University of Utah, and she had us reading some really challenging research articles and different readings. And I remember one of the choices was like a chapter from Seidenberg. And I was like, Oh, well, I have that book. And I know that's going to be hardest, so I'm gonna choose one of the other articles. And then I was trying to read one of the other articles, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is so hard. Let me go back to Seidenberg. And I read the Seidenberg chapter and I'm like, Oh, I understand this. And it was just like, you know, a couple years later, so I totally had more background knowledge. And I understood now maybe I could go back and read those research articles and they would make more sense, but takeaways. Yeah,

Donell Pons:

I love that. Because notice the one who did say if there was one, it would be. That would be the one. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown:

Importance of background knowledge. Yeah, we know this research tells us that's vital. So that's cool. Yeah.

Donell Pons:

You didn't ask us this, but I do want a is there a book work that you've read that you you're you're not hearing a lot of people talking about that you think was really good. And I do have one of those. I don't know if anybody else has got one. So give me a chance to kind of think because I was hoping you would ask me that, because there's one that I was hoping would get more traction. And I rarely hear anybody talk about it. And I've never heard anybody quoting from it. And it was really good. And it's on the for front of thought for right now.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Oh, I'm so curious now. Totally. I know you have. I know. Yeah. What is it?

Donell Pons:

So it's reader comm. Yes, I have Maryanne Wolf. And I'm surprised more people haven't talked about it, because she really got the conversation rolling on digital. Yes. And I have heard a lot of people pick up the ball and run with it. Right. Really good point.

Lindsay Kemeny:

That's true. And Donal, I hear you quote from this all the time, or you bring it up in with people? So yeah, that

Donell Pons:

was good. You know. And what's interesting is at the very beginning of it, you know, she's so poetic. She sounds like she's reading poetry every time she reads her own words. But she starts out by saying you stand at the doorway of my words, together, we stand at the threshold of galactic changes over the next few generations. We who doesn't want to read more about that?

Unknown:

You the Star Wars theme, exactly. matches,

Donell Pons:

and then really does do a really good job of diving into some of this as yet not really studied deeply area of so what happens when we become digital readers, and just digital is the way we're getting things and the information age. She also dives into the information age. But interesting. I haven't really seen a lot of people talking about it. Right?

Unknown:

Yeah. And do you know, it's a little bit ironic, because that the fact that we have technology like that has informed what we know about reading in the brain, more than we've ever been able to inform before. Yet it also is affecting the brain, we could probably do a whole episode on that.

Donell Pons:

I know we could. Yeah, you know, and if that so I revisited this in lieu of this conversation, Lindsey, because I was thinking otherwise, he's gonna be asking us about these. And this is one I dusted, it blew the dust. I thought I will look at this again. And then it informed an experience I had with a student when I was sitting just with a student this week. And we ended up I ended up just saying to myself, You know what we need, we need to have one of these moments, we need to have that Maryanne Wolf, she calls him the lap moment I kind of chuckled with Stacy, I did this earlier today, we talked about this the lap moment where a kid calls into your lap, and you read that book together. And it's sight and sound and touch and feel it's everything. You're just having a sensory moment that involves the book, you're there together for the book. I mean, she just sets the stage so well for that. And so I have this student, and he's been doing such good work and working so hard. But he's an older student, he's well into his 50s has struggled with reading his entire life. So these moments that have joy with a book are precious, right? If you queue and precious, and they're hard fought. And we've been reading a book, it's been a challenge, but he's hanging in there with it. And we're getting to the last bit of it. And I said to him, let's just read together. You know, of course, I said to stay Suleiman always crawling in anybody's lap these days, but not appropriate if we're gonna sit next to each other, but kind of recreate that moment. And so I took the book and I said, Hey, I'm going to read a page, you read a page. And so my finger would scan over the page, and I would read, and he would listen and watch my face and know everything going and happening. And then he would take it read, and I would watch him. And sometimes I'd stop him. And I say, Gosh, what does that look like to you? Can you picture that? And we had one of those moments with the book that Marianne was talking about may become a thing of the past time just flew by for the two of us. And when I got done, I turned to him. And he goes, That was amazing. Oh, cool, you know, and it was, I mean, it was one of those life changing experiences that you have with a book.

Lindsay Kemeny:

It's so sweet. I love that. I mean, it's just it's so exciting. Just the emotion that, you know, reading brings on and just last week in my class, I had a little student when he was reading a little story, it's called the evergreen tree. I think it's about this tree. That's like she's giving it's not like The Giving Tree. That's like, that is a huge tear jerker, right. I read that as an adult, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, but anyway, that tree is kind of giving, I think it's like, it's sheltering this little bird or something. And he just at the end was like, that book makes me cry. And I was like, why? And because it wasn't sad, you know? And he saw the tree is just so kind. And it was just so neat to see how just the, you know, that story just touched him so much. So yeah. Okay, what are you guys reading right now?

Unknown:

All the things.

Lindsay Kemeny:

All the books you do like a chapter from one book and a chapter from another.

Unknown:

I have booked add at this point. I am reading structured literacy interviews.

Lindsay Kemeny:

I am reading oh my gosh, that's so good. Like I just last week, 2022. I

Unknown:

was telling Donald earlier, a friend of mine went to order it and they're backordered like Oh, anyway, that's what I mean, right now. I know what are you ready?

Lindsay Kemeny:

I kind of cut you off. So I want to make sure everyone heard it's structured literacy interventions, and it's edited by Louise spear swirling so you You know, you see that name and it's something you can trust that it is awesome only read one chapter I skipped to the one on fluency because I was just excited and I loved it like it tells you the research specific interventions to do for fluency and then it you know, it has a different topic for each chapter. So awesome. Okay, sorry, Don out,

Donell Pons:

Hey, no problem. And just quickly, because I know we're gonna wrap up here. And then maybe this is a nice way to kind of top it off, because I'm reading a book called behave. It's the biology of humans that are best and worst. And it's actually a book that my son has read. And we're having a shared reading experience. So he read it, thoroughly enjoyed it, and pass it off to me to read. And I'm now sharing it with him. So when I read, I call him up, we chat. Sometimes we get together and just chat about it. And that, to me, is the beauty of books is how it connects us. And now we have a shared experience and some information that the two of us have together, and it's given us insight into our relationship. I mean, already, so that's books to me. Yeah,

Lindsay Kemeny:

that's really cool. They're beautiful. I love that. Okay, awesome. We've we've talked about some amazing books, hopefully, you know, the probably too many ideas out there, if you're like furiously writing them all down, but there's so many great books on literacy. Just a last question, Do either of you have a method for marking your books because I just know this amazing lady who like she shows a book she's read like you don L where she has like, everything color coded and these tabs and all these things. And I'm like, Oh, I wish I wish I could organize my reading like that. Okay, Darnell, what's your process?

Donell Pons:

You know, so Lindsay and Stacy, this is from my first career as a reporter. That's that, isn't that interesting? Because yes, when you when you do research, right for an article or something that you do more research that you had, you had to code it, so you could find it later. So that's how I read. Yeah. Well, it depends on what I'm reading. Yeah. So it depends on what I'm reading and what I'm coding it for. As Okay, so

Unknown:

we're looking at the book, which book is that? You're holding? So this

Donell Pons:

is reading in the brain? Okay. Three different colors. Yeah. So I've got blue, that's going to give me the biology and the science. And I've got red always tagged for dyslexia within a book that has dyslexia in it because the reds, what I'm looking for in dyslexia, and then the yellows for teaching, things that I can implement into my teaching, so they're coded differently.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Wow, I think we need a lesson from you. Yeah. What do you do Lindsay? Nothing I was reading and then I like I just highlighted like, that's good. Oh, that's good. And sometimes I put a star

Unknown:

you guys have a story about that. Like our listeners can't see but I have whatever sticky note is nearby. The colors mean nothing. Yes. And I will occasionally circle a vocabulary word I don't know and write down the definition. I star I highlight, but there is no rhyme or reason. Yeah. But I'm not even kidding you. This is one of the books that influenced me early on teaching our children to read by Bill Hoenig, incidentally helped with the court, the teaching reading source book. But anyway, funny thing. Somebody had asked me about this book recently, so I pulled it out. You guys, I found a check from 1998 in my because I've used it to mark something. It's no longer valid. But you know, reading pays off in more ways than when I

Lindsay Kemeny:

guess. Well, okay, so thank you. This was a great conversation, you guys. I want to get more organized and how I mark so Darnell, we need to have more conversations.

Unknown:

Yes. Okay. Well, thank you, Lindsey. For this great episode. I loved the questions you came up with. And I know that we are running short on time, but we can cut out a lot of my TED talk if we need to. But I love this question that you asked that we didn't answer a book that has a special place in your heart.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Oh, well, maybe we should end on that.

Unknown:

I think that'd be a good way to end. Okay, Darnell, you go.

Donell Pons:

Okay, so I will because I've been thinking about I'm gonna go back to overcoming dyslexia. When I got the copy. It was at the library. I picked it up at our local library. It was evening it was raining. I got into the car to read it. And do you know, guys, I started it drove home, pulled into the garage, Shut the garage door and didn't go until it finished. I was out there for hours. And I was crying because I felt like I finally had a place to start.

Unknown:

Okay, I will go next and then we'll end with you, Lindsay. Okay, so I actually have two and they're not related. They're not about reading, but one is Sylvester and the magic pebble. Oh, I love that book by itself really didn't mean a ton to me. It was a great story. Lots of good lessons. Kids love it. But right after Elizabeth smart was found, and you guys this was sheer magic and coincidence. Because I remember the day it was literally the day after I made the news I taught in Utah so it was even bigger news here. And I did not for my morning read aloud hadn't planned anything. I literally just happened to grab that off the shelf and my students were making connections between Elizabeth smart and Sylvester even down into the Oh, remember, she was nearby her family and they didn't even know. And Sylvester was a pebble and they sat on him and they didn't even notice him. And I that was so magical. So that book does have a special place in my heart because I think it shows, I don't know, even in six year olds, seven year olds could make those meaningful connections. But another one is called the reader. And I don't recommend it frequently. It's really well written and it is a movie too. I think Caitlin's lit stars in the movie is rated R. So if you're sensitive to that, I don't recommend it. But the main message is honestly, the impact that illiteracy can have on a life literally. And this woman was in prison when she learned how to read and it was the most freeing thing for her. So I closed that book. And I literally went, wow, like it took my breath away. So that book is close to my heart, too, because it really helps us emphasize the importance of why we do what we do. Okay, Lindsay, big finale.

Lindsay Kemeny:

Yeah, so the book that's has the most special place in my heart is called dog man, by Dave Pilkey. And you're probably like, what, but there's a reason for that. That is the first book that my son with severe dyslexia, picked up and read on his own. And it was like a gateway book, because that led him into reading himself. And it was just, I can't even tell you. In fact, I took a picture because I just remember looking over and doing this double take, because there He sat reading with a book in his free time. And I just cried. Because it was such a amazing moment. So I'll always be grateful for that book, because that's what lead my son into books and reading.

Unknown:

Thank you, Lindsay. That was an awesome way to end. I think that is really powerful. And what a fun conversation. I think we proven a lot of things in the course of this episode, one that we could talk about books for ever. I always love talking about books. So we should probably do another of these episodes and maybe invite some other people to join us too. So thank you for joining us in this episode, and we'll see you next time on literacy talks.

Narrator:

Thanks for joining us today for literacy talks, the podcast series for literacy leaders and champions everywhere. Literacy talks comes to you for Reading Horizons where reading momentum begins. Join us next time