The Best-Kept Secret in American Education

Jim Trelease, the American guru on the art of reading aloud, tells us on page xiii of his indispensable The Read-Aloud Handbook:

“Extensive research has proven that reading aloud to a child is the single most important factor in raising a reader. These inexpensive fifteen minutes a day are the best-kept secret in American education.” (emphasis my own)

Fifteen minutes a day! Can getting an education really be that simple? Can a mere fifteen minutes a day be that powerful?

I thought about this quote. A lot.

And I thought about it some more.

And I read what Jim Trelease had to say about this secret fifteen minutes of read-aloud time that can promote readers and, thus, lifelong learners, and the precious fifteen minutes of time each day shared effortlessly between a parent and child.

And I couldn’t fail to realize the intimate connection between this "inexpensive fifteen minutes a day" and the time it takes to read a children's picture book.

Whether you are five or fifty, in school or a boardroom, parenting babies or grandbabies; I invite you to take fifteen minutes of your day to explore some picture books with me. If not because I say so, then because C.S. Lewis and Jim Trelease say so.

C.S. Lewis:

“No book is really worth reading at age ten which is not equally worth reading
at the age of fifty”

and

“...a children’s story which is only enjoyed by children is a bad children’s story.”

Jim Trelease:

"A good story is a good story. Beautiful and stirring pictures can move fifteen-year-olds as well as five-year-olds. A picture book(s) should be someplace on the reading list of every class at every level." (Pages
90-92 of A Read-Aloud Handbook)