The Books We Read as Kids and Those We Read to Our Kids

A children's book can make you laugh, spark your imagination, or even bring you to tears years later.

In this episode, we talk about the books we loved growing up, the stories we've read to our own children, and why picture books aren't just for kids. We mention some loved books by Canadian authors, both classic and modern. We also explore how children learn to read and how children's books can be useful for adult learners.

 Whether you're a parent, a book lover, or an English learner looking for reading inspiration, we think you'll enjoy this conversation. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And as a kid, I just loved it and it was sweet, but now it's nattled. Yeah. When I read it about my child, it almost brings me to tears every time I read it. It's so beautiful. It's so be and so emotional. Yes. Hello, Eepers.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to another episode of Extra English Podcast with Misha and Larissa. We're two Canadian English teachers talking about life in Canada, our lives, and anything else that might interest us. And hopefully it will interest you too. So join us for another conversation.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Today we're going to talk about uh books, children's books specifically. Books we liked as children or adult, young adults, and books we read to our kids. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Uh so to get started, did you have a favorite book as a child, Misha?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I loved to read as a kid. So I'm sure there were many. But one I really remember, and partly because I read it now to my son, uh, is I Love You Forever. By Robert Munch. Classic. Yes. As a Canadian author. Yeah. I bet you could even quote it. I think I could, but let me tell you now, it's a it's a really sweet story about uh a mother who holds her son and rocks him in his sleep as he grows up. And then when he when she's older, he rocks her. It's so beautiful. Oh, it is really adorable. And as a kid, I just loved it and it was sweet, but now it's nattled. Yeah. When I read it about my child, it almost brings me to tears every time I read it. It's so beautiful. It's so be and so emotional. Yes. Like thinking of aging and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

It's really good.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

So we should check it out if you haven't. And and it's it you it stays with you. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as you're with me, my baby you'll be, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

As long as I'm living. As long as I'm living, you'll be with my baby, you'll be.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

So sweet. That's good. Yeah. I did read that one as a child too, but I don't think we had it. So I didn't read it on repeat. Yeah. Um, but a book that we read a lot at my house was called There's a Monster at the End of This Book. I don't think I know that one. It was um, it was a Sesame Street book, the cute the television program Sesame Street, and Grover, who is the blue monster, um, was the main character. And all the way through he was saying, Don't turn the page. Did you didn't you see the title? It says, There's a monster at the end of this book. I'm scared. Why are you turning pages? Don't do it. And at the end, it's him. He's the monster. Yes. That's cute. It was fun. It was funny. Um, yeah, I liked the the graphics. I liked I liked the the way my parents would pretend to, you know, not want to do. Should we turn the page? Should we not? Yeah. It was exciting. That's a really creative idea. Fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Louisa, have you read that book with your kids?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Well, we don't have the paper copy, but we maybe I have found it recently. Anyway, for a long time we read it on the iPad. Yes. Because it's it's a great story. Yeah. But I feel like these days there are so many more picture books. Yeah. As an adult, I love reading picture books. I love to go to the children's section of the library and pick out a few. And sometimes my daughter who is 12 will let me read them to her, but often she won't. So I'll just read them for myself because I love them. You should come over here. I should read to your son. Yes, read to my son. He'd love that.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Do you read a lot of books? We read a lot of books. A lot of them we read over and over. You know how it goes with little kids. So the the top ones right now, uh, one is about a bear who lives in the garden of his friend Clementine's house. Okay. And he goes for a walk to the library and everyone runs away. And all the library's closed, and there's and he can't figure it out, but it's because he's scary.

unknown 3:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Is it cute? It has a happy ending. Is Clementine a human? Clementine's a little human. So her and her mother really like George the bear. And in fact, you gave us a large stuffed bear. Yes. That we call George after the George in the book. So this one is we've been reading that one every night for a year. Okay. Maybe not every night, a few times a week at least.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

And then his other favorite right now is called Post Mouse. And it's about a mouse who delivers the mail to the other animals. It's very cute.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Isn't it amazing how like animals can do anything in a book?

unknown 4:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

And sometimes they're animals, like the bear.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Like he's friends with the humans, but the humans are also scared of him. Yeah. And as children, it just all makes sense. We just accept it all. It just rolls. In fiction, we accept everything. Yeah.

unknown 4:44

It's true.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Well, plus, I find these days, like your monster at the end of the book, there's a lot of kind of interactive. Yeah. So we have another one about a cloud that changes shape and does all these things. And you have to give the cloud a high five and give him a hug. My son hugs the book and shake it. It went, it's really fun. Yeah. Which I feel like there weren't as many of those when we were.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

I think that came out of research, research and literacy. And the idea of interacting with the story is good for building literacy.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And so instead of just expecting the parents to intuit that, yeah, they've put it right into the books.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

I love it. Yeah. Uh speaking of how kids read, I've been listening to this really interesting podcast lately about um how in Canadian and I think it's American actually, but we we use a similar method here. How reading is taught in schools. And how the method is largely based off of one woman's research. Okay. And actually her research since the time that she did it has been proven wrong. Wow. Many times over. Okay. It's really interesting. So the method that many schools use is actually not the most successful or effective method. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

So what do they recommend on this podcast?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

They recommend like phonics. Phonics, yeah. Or I mean, similar to how we teach adults, which is what are the letters, what sounds do they make, and sounding it out as a, you know, in contrast to, I think when we were young, at least when I was, there was a lot of focus on sight words. Right? Which is learning to recognize what a word looks like the whole thing, which earlier on is more effective. Yeah. But in the long term, it doesn't help you if you come across a new word.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah. So being able to know there are many words that don't follow the patterns and they need to be learned as sight words.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Yes. But then I think, I mean, I think you can still attempt it. Right? And you start to learn T and H together make this sound. Yeah. G and H sometimes make this sound. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

So you you try it using your rules, your your phonetic rules. And if it's not right, then you learn, oh, this is an exception. Exactly. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

As opposed to just learning what every word looks like.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, that's that's a lot. So I have a friend who teaches kindergarten and she's interesting. She's been teaching for a long time. And often in education, you know, they they decide we're gonna do it this way now, and then they say we're gonna do it this way. We call it the pendulum swings. Like ah, method, methodology changes. But she said secretly she always taught phonics. I love that. And she was right. Yeah, because she knew she could tell from the way her students learned that that's the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's the way to learn to read. I mean, I would never think to learn to teach an adult learner sight words. Of course you would do. A phonics. We don't call it that for adults, or at least that's not what it's called in our field, but it's the same similar concept.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

It gets tricky with adults though, because phonics works when you already know a lot of words in a language. Because they often use pictures to match with the letters and the sounds. So it's it gets complicated with adult learners, I think. I suppose. Or second language learners, at least.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I mean, when I've learned alphabets in other languages, we are getting off topic, but we'll get back. You often do like alphabets, usually are learned with a word. Like the first letter in the Hindi alphabet is for mango, which I can't pronounce, so I'm not gonna say. Um anyway. I would believe you. Off topic. Uh, I think this is interesting because our most popular YouTube video ever is a video that can be used for phonics.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, it's true. About the vowel sounds.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yes. It's by far our most popular video.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

And it's about the sounds of the vowels from a phonics type perspective. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Well, people just know. They know what they need and they know where to find it. That's right. So, speaking of adult learners and going back to books, I like to use picture books in my class with adult learners. And sometimes when I first started, I felt the need to give a disclaimer. Yeah. Like, I know this is a child's resource. And you're not a child. You are adults, yes. But there is beauty in this and there is good learning to be had, and I've chosen it for a reason. Um and and the resources I choose are not like they're they're not animals.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

They're not they're not, they're not monster at the end of the book.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

They're not. They're not even like, I'm, I'm we're all scared of you at the library. Like they're they're set in our world and they're all with people, but the the the pictures, illustrations are beautiful, and the message is clear. And so I recommend to my students to read picture books, partly because you have the pictures to help you understand what's going on. You have the context clues, but also, especially now, there are so many beautiful stories.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

There really, there really, really are. Yeah. Uh, we have one about it's my favorite book about uh how we're all trees. Oh. Like we're people. We're people, yes. But the book is saying, like, um just making a metaphor of a human, like a tree and the branches and the wind, and the roots, and the and it's so beautiful. And at the end of the book, the little boy says to this woman, I can see the tree in you. Oh I could almost cry just thinking about it. It's just this really beautiful, lovely metaphor. I love it so much. And the little boy in the book looks like my son. Oh so he always thinks it's him. It's my favorite. It is him, but this, like for an adult, I would just read that book myself.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

And I actually want to read that book. I'm I'm going to read it before I leave here because um I'm making a quilt all about trees. Like I'm I'm in my tree era.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

You're a tree. I am. We are. We are exactly. Oh, I'll lend it to you for sure. Thank you. So we were talking about stories we liked as little kids. And then growing up a little as a young adult, I I loved to read, first of all. It was my favorite activity. I would sit, you could shout my name and I wouldn't hear you. I would get so absorbed in what I was reading. Um, I really liked as a like tween uh or older child fantasy novels. Ah. Like anything with a dragon, magic. I loved that kind of stuff. Did you like princesses? I didn't really care so much about princesses. No, you wanted you wanted action. Yeah. And like fantastical things. You know? There was one author, Ann McCaffrey, she's quite famous, who would write about people and they'd bond with a dragon. You know, like a dragon would choose them. Okay. Like people having special lives. I liked.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

I liked this. And did you imagine, like, did you see yourself in the story? Were you one of the characters? Did you identify more with the dragons?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I think I I liked, I mean, if I had stumbled across a dragon in real life, I would have hoped it bonded with me. I do think as a kid, especially, even as an adult, there is something nice about reading someone who's like special or chosen or different and imagining yourself being that.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

You know? So for sure. I think that's a very common theme. The theme of the like the the Voyager. What is the hero? The hero. Yeah. The hero's journey. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

What about you when you were a little older, post-picture book era? So I actually didn't read very much. Oh no. No. I I did like the Ramona Quimby series.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

That was very popular when Larissa and I were young.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

She's she's the character. She was a girl probably my age, probably like grade four or five, I would imagine. I think so. Um, and she had little adventures. She was a bit of a character. Like she's I remember she squeezed out the whole tube of toothpaste one time and got in big trouble. It's really stuck with you. I think part of me was like, what would happen if I did that? Yeah. That was very relatable to your real life. Exactly. Yeah. So I did read those series, but um, it wasn't it wasn't something that I I was really passionate about really until I was an adult. Interesting. Like as a teenager, not really. No. Oh wow. And part of it is I think that I didn't I didn't get hooked on a series or a type. Yeah. So I would I would read for school, of course. And I would read some nonfiction, but that's not exciting. You need to get lost in a good story. Totally. And I didn't I didn't have that. I think my parents also didn't really read a lot of fiction.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Yeah, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

And so it wasn't part of our family culture. We had lots of books around, but nobody was sitting around reading a novel. They were more for learning than entertainment. Yeah. Yeah. Which is totally valid, right? Read for learning. It's a great reason to read.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

No one is suggesting you shouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

But to develop a love for reading, I really think yeah, it it needs to be fiction to really capture your imagination.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah. I wonder, I wonder if everyone agrees or if there are people who feel that fascination with nonfiction. I wonder. I don't. I'm with I'm like you. Yeah. So I'm clear. But I guess if you're passionate about a topic.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

Yeah, like history or something. Yeah, that could be. But you could argue history is not fiction, but it's stories.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yes, we both love a story. Yeah. This is why we're here. That's true. There are still stories.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Um, if you are someone who loves reading, but not fiction, please share with us. Like what how how did you get your start? And and what is it about about reading that draws you?

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah. We're curious.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

So I have a question for you. You said you were you always had your nose in a book. Always. Couldn't distract you. Did you have a special place you read?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

No, anywhere. Anywhere. Yeah. The beach, other people's houses, the table, the couch, my bed until two in the morning. Anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Other people's like you would go to someone's house and they'd be like, hey, where's Misha?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

If I went anywhere, I had a book.

unknown 15:11

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Yeah, we would go. I remember one night we went to a friend's house for dinner. Friends we saw often, so they were like family. And I was reading, and the multiple of them were shouting my name and I didn't hear because my book was so good. Yeah, any everywhere, anywhere, not in the car, because that makes me a little nauseous. Nauseous. Yeah. But everywhere else. Yeah. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Did you have a favorite spot though? Like you could read anywhere, but did you have a favorite spot? A place where in your mind you still associate with a book? Or just life was associated with a book.

unknown 15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Honestly, it was really my favorite activity. Okay. I mean, probably I spend the most hours reading in bed at night. Sure. Yeah. But no. You know, though, when you mention history, that makes me think of a memorable series I read when I was young, which was historical, pre it was like prehistoric, I guess. Prehistoric history. It was kind of a fictionalized imagining of Homo sapien life. Okay. So like life way back. Yeah. And it was recommended to me by the librarians, because all the librarians knew me at the local library. So I was looking for, and they'd see me coming, you know, I'd find a new author and I'd read all their books. And then I'd find another one and I'd read all their books. So one librarian recommended this series to me, and I think it was, I should look it up, at least three or four books. And they're all like a thousand pages. So I think part of her motivation was probably this will hold her for over for a while.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

But it probably didn't. I mean, they were very good. The stories were so, it was such an emotional. I remember sobbing at this one particular part. Yes, it was such a good series, very popular. It's called Clan of the Cave Bear. But I was about 11 or 12 at this point, and they were adult books written for adults. Okay. And they had some very adult scenes. Uh-huh. Which I was shocked to come upon as a child and not interested in. I would just skip over them while like, you know, blushing or whatever. But then I remember bringing it back the first one to the librarian, asking for the second and thinking, she knows what's in here. Does she think I've read that? You know, like feeling this like awkward kidness around that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

But but she must have thought you could handle it if she recommended that series, do you?

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Yes. And I wasn't the majority of the story. It was small parts that I just wasn't interested in.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

So bam.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah. And the books, the stories were just so good.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

So do you still love um a fantasy book or uh like what's your preferred I think now I like like our world, like this series was, but a little bit different. So for example, there's another Canadian series called The Trickster series, written by an indigenous author that's our world, but plus some like mystical, magical sort of elements to it. Okay. So I like this, like not a totally different universe. Yeah. Our world, but plus a little extra layer.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. What about you? Uh I am more interested in the characters than the story. Um, I mean, I do like a plot. Who doesn't? But um, yeah. So for example, I've always I've never wanted to watch the Star Trek series. Why? Because they're like doing things in space. I don't care what they're doing. Listen. They're not really growing as people.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

No, you're wrong. Oh. The character development in that series is very good.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I I wouldn't have chosen to watch a lot of that, but my brother loved it, and we watched the TV that he said we were going to watch. Watch a lot of that. But but I hear you.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

It's not your Well, maybe I didn't watch enough to get to know the characters. And TV is different than books. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. But a story that that if I don't love or care about the characters, I'm not going to finish the book.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

You want the people and their character development to be the main plot.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

That makes sense. I get it. Yeah. You it's nice to care about. It's nice to get so involved in a story that you feel invested in the characters.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

And so to bring us back to children's books, it could be a bear or a mouse.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Listen, I love George the Bear. Post mouse. He's doing good work. Uh speaking of characters, again, talking about modern children's books and ways they're different from what we had, and also the same. But my son has a book that has his name in it that a friend of ours gifted us that she ordered online where you can like put in name and she chose the appearance of the little character. Yes. So it's a book about him. That's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Is it a finding book?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

It is a finding book.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Okay, so we have the same. My kids have the same book. I think there was a time when they were really advertising, and it's a great gift.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Oh, so we love it.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

So there is a story to it. Like every every page, you're I think mine's time travel. So you're different time periods, but it's a search and find book. And you're looking for, yeah, like yourself. Yeah. Plus a bunch of other things. Yes. So fun. Very cool. And I think this was never possible until we had like self-publishing and really easy access to printing. And that's right.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Things have changed. Plus, for you, for me, and I I'm sure it was the same for you. I was never gonna stumble across a book with Misha.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

No.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Not an English-speaking book in Canada about a character named Misha. My name is not very common. Larissa's name is also Larissa as a main character. And same for my son. His name here is unusual. Yeah. So it's nice to be able to like have something that has his name. Yeah. Super fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah, I really love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

I'm sure there are many more books we could talk about. You and I both like to read. But we'll stop there for this episode and maybe pick this conversation up another time.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah. But if you have a favorite, especially a children's book that you would love to share, we'll read it. Let us know. Thanks for joining us for another episode.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

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SPEAKER_00 21:41

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SPEAKER_01 21:44

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