Michael Dirda Quotes

As a father, I understand the importance of the bond that develops through reading picture books with your child.

Now, my mom did not read well and she read 'True Romance' magazines, but she read with me. And she would spend 30 minutes a day, her finger going along the page, and I learned to read. Eventually, by the time I was four and a half, she could iron and I could sit there and read the 'True Romance.' And that was wonderful.

My dad taught me to read by reading comic strips in the Saturday paper and Archie comics.

As time goes by the memories of sitting on the edge of a bed and reading aloud with your kid are going to be very meaningful in your own mental scrapbook.

I do not remember any proper children's books in my childhood. I was not exposed to them.

I don't really remember my folks singing to us, but they read to us.

I listened to a lot of stories when I was a kid. My mother told me stories, and I loved them.

With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own.

I love stories. I loved stories when I was a kid. My mom read stories to me all the time.

I read to my kid, but I can't stand reading.

Something like reading depends a lot on just having people around you who talk to you and read you books, more than sitting down and, say, doing a reading drill when you're 3 or 4 years old.

I have very vivid memories of my mother reading to us as kids.

People enjoy being read to, beginning from when they're little.

For the very young, there's nothing better than Mother Goose and anything by Dr. Seuss for the rhythms and language.

We know that reading to children is a crucial step. From the beginning, babies who are read to are exposed to the cadence of language, and school-age children who read at home for 15 minutes a day are exposed to millions of words.

If you sit down and read with your kid, either having your child read to you or you reading to your child at a regular time each day, it deepens the relationship. You don't have to talk about stuff; the story will do that work for you.

My earliest memory of books is not of reading but of being read to. I spent hours listening, watching the face of the person reading aloud to me.

Writing, for me, really started in the '70s as a young child. I used to read a lot of nursery rhymes, and I learned a lot of those rhymes word for word.

Reading to small children is a specialty.

Basically, I learned to read by reading 'Peanuts,' just wanting to know what they were saying. I was 4 or 5 or whatever. I think it's a fairly common story.

If you read in front of your kids, it's very likely that they'll become readers, too.

I taught my son to read with tabloids. We would sit to read the 'Weekly World News' together.

I think that being read to every night is the reason why I was plowing through volume after volume of 'Nancy Drew' books all by myself by the time I reached the first grade. I loved stories. I loved the escape. I had a vivid imagination.

With reading, I was very lucky. I had a mother who read to me, not because she had time - she was a busy woman - but she found 10 minutes to come and sit on my bed with a book.

I think picture books should stretch children. I think they should be full of wonderful, amazing words.