The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

Audio CD(Unabridged)

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Overview

A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction.

A miraculous alchemy occurs when one person reads to another, transforming the simple stuff of a book, a voice, and a bit of time into complex and powerful fuel for the heart, brain, and imagination. Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too.

Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures.

Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781982607630
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 01/15/2019
Edition description: Unabridged
Product dimensions: 5.60(w) x 5.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Meghan Cox Gurdon is an essayist, book critic, and former foreign correspondent who has been The Wall Street Journal's children's book reviewer since 2005. Her work has appeared widely, in publications such as The Washington Examiner, The Daily Telegraph, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and National Review. A graduate of Bowdoin College, she lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband, Hugo Gurdon, and their five children.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

Introduction xiii

1 What Reading to Children Does to Their Brains 1

2 Where It All Began: Once Upon a Time in the Ancient World 21

3 Reading Together Strengthens the Bonds of Love 41

4 Turbocharging Child Development with Picture Books 67

5 The Rich Rewards of a Vast Vocabulary 91

6 The Power of Paying Attention-and Flying Free 117

7 Reading Aloud Furnishes the Mind 145

8 From the Nursery to the Nursing Home: Why Reading Aloud Never Gets Old 177

9 There Is No Present Like the Time 195

Afterword 217

Acknowledgments 219

Notes 223

Read-Aloud Books Mentioned, In The Enchanted Hour 251

More Suggested Stories For Reading Aloud 255

Index 263

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