A review by mongert
The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids by Sarah MacKenzie

4.0

I got this book at the library based on a passing recommendation from someone who I only spoke to briefly. At first, I was basically skimming it. I thought it seemed kind of obvious. But then, I noticed that I was tagging so many pages and passages that it was ridiculous. I started a Google doc to keep track of everything I wanted to follow up on. Then I caved and just bought the book.

In some ways, this book IS kind of obvious. But then again, it's not if you aren't doing it. I wasn't doing any of this - I wasn't reading aloud a lot to my kids; I wasn't asking a lot of questions about the reading; and I have been mystified about picking out books for the kids for a while now. All of that has changed since I picked up this book, and right now our reading-aloud time is precious. It calms and distracts when my kids are in a bad mood, it engages us thoroughly, and it fills up time without screens. If you are already doing all of this, you probably don't need this book and might not enjoy it. For me, it was a good push in a different direction for us right now.

I am not a religious person, and this book does have a lot of Christian references. Personally, I don't mind it (I mostly skip past that stuff). I have started listening to Mackenzie's podcast too, and if I end up homeschooling this next year (insanity!), I might look to her as well (although my approach will be secular).