SEPTEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Kristen Potter directs listeners through Wolf's incisive examination of the increased consumption of digital media over the written word—and its impact. The exponential growth of digital formats has measurably changed what readers read—therefore, what they absorb, think, learn, and communicate. This change, Wolf says, comes at a cost to our shared humanity. Sound alarmist? Perhaps, but when these ideas are considered through Wolf's persuasive lens and Potter's assured performance, listeners will have no choice to but to imagine what is at stake. The author’s arguments are made through a series of letters addressed to the listener, an effective conceit that Potter embraces through a measured pace and clear enunciation, further reinforcing the all-important transactional nature of reading and listening. A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 05/28/2018
A decade after the publication of Proust and the Squid, neuroscientist Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language at Tufts University, returns with an edifying examination of the effects of digital media on the way people read and think. A “researcher of the reading brain,” Wolf draws on the perspectives of neuroscience, literature, and human development to chronicle the changes in the brain that occur when children and adults are immersed in digital media. When people process information quickly and in brief bursts, as is common today, they curtail the development of the “contemplative dimension” of the brain that provides humans with the capacity to form insight and empathy. In describing the wonders of the “deep reading circuit” of the brain, Wolf bemoans the loss of literary cultural touchstones in many readers’ internal knowledge base, complex sentence structure, and cognitive patience, but she readily acknowledges the positive features of the digitally trained mind, like improved task switching. Wolf stays firmly grounded in reality when presenting suggestions—such as digital reading tools that engage deep thinking and connection to caregivers—for how to teach young children to be competent, curious, and contemplative in a world awash in digital stimulus. This is a clarion call for parents, educators, and technology developers to work to retain the benefits of reading independent of digital media. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Wolf offers a persuasive catalog of the cognitive and social good created by deep reading…. She’s right that digital media doesn’t automatically doom deep reading and can even enhance it. She’s also correct that we have a lot to lose if we don’t pay attention to what we’re doing with technology and what it’s doing to us.” — Washington Post
“[A] gentle manifesto…. [Wolf] affirms and celebrates the power of reading for the formation of our moral imaginations, and a lifetime of bookish devotion bubbles to the surface of her lovely prose in allusion and quotation.” — Washington Free Beacon
“Maryanne Wolf has done it again. She has written another seminal book destined to become a dog-eared, well-thumbed, often-referenced treasure on your bookshelf.... Reader Come Home conveys a cautionary message, but it also will rekindle your heart and help illuminate promising paths ahead.” — International Dyslexia Association
“This rich study by cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf tackles an urgent question: how do digital devices affect the reading brain? Wolf explores the “cognitive strata below the surface of words”, the demotivation of children saturated in on-screen stimulation, and the power of ‘deep reading’ and challenging texts in building nous and ethical responses such as empathy…. An antidote for today’s critical-thinking deficit.” — Nature
“[T]imely and important.... if you love reading and the ways it has enriched your life and our world, Reader, Come Home is essential, arriving at a crucial juncture in history.” — BookPage
“Wolf wields her pen with equal parts wisdom and wonder. The result is a joy to read and reread, a love letter to literature, literacy, and progress.” — Shelf Awareness
“Wolf stays firmly grounded in reality when presenting suggestions... for how to teach young children to be competent, curious, and contemplative in a world awash in digital stimulus. [Reader, Come Home] is a clarion call for parents, educators, and technology developers to work to retain the benefits of reading independent of digital media.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Wolf is a lovely prose writer who draws not only on research but also on a broad range of literary references, historical examples, and personal anecdotes. The strongest parts of Reader, Come Home are her moving accounts of why reading matters, and her deeply detailed exploration of how the reading brain is being changed by screens…. Wolf makes a strong case for what we lose when we lose reading.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“A love song to the written word, a brilliant introduction to the science of the reading brain and a powerful call to action. With each page, Wolf shows us why we must preserve deep reading for ourselves and sow desire for it within our kids. Otherwise we risk losing the critical benefits for humanity that come with reading deeply to understand our world.” — Lisa Guernsey, co-author of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in A World of Screens
“Scholar, storyteller, and humanist, Wolf brings her laser sharp eye to the science of reading in a seminal book about what it means to be literate in our digital and global age. Informed by a review of research from neuroscience to Socratic philosophy, and wittily crafted with true affection for her audience, Reader Come Home charts a compelling case for a new approach to lifelong literacy that could truly affect the course of human history.” — Michael H. Levine, co-author of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in A World of Screens
“In this profound and well-researched study of our changing reading patterns, Wolf presents lucid arguments for teaching our brain to become all-embracing in the age of electronic technology. If you call yourself a reader and want to keep on being one, this extraordinary book is for you.” — Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading
“Wolf (Tufts, Proust and the Squid) provides a mix of reassurance and caution in this latest look at how we read today. . . . A hopeful look at the future of reading that will resonate with those who worry that we are losing our ability to think in the digital age. Accessible to general readers and experts alike.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“An accessible, well-researched analysis of the impact of literacy.” — Kirkus
“Wolf has a profound respect for the beauty and power of the reading brain as well as a great curiosity about the digital brain that may soon displace it.” — Boston Globe
"[Reader, Come Home] is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of recent years. Wolf expresses with increasing forcefulness what is by now a common anxiety: that digital devices are challenging all of us (certainly not just children) in entirely new ways." — Julian Girdham, teacher at the English Department of St. Columbia's College
"A tour de force." — Claremont Review of Books
Washington Free Beacon
[A] gentle manifesto…. [Wolf] affirms and celebrates the power of reading for the formation of our moral imaginations, and a lifetime of bookish devotion bubbles to the surface of her lovely prose in allusion and quotation.
Michael H. Levine
Scholar, storyteller, and humanist, Wolf brings her laser sharp eye to the science of reading in a seminal book about what it means to be literate in our digital and global age. Informed by a review of research from neuroscience to Socratic philosophy, and wittily crafted with true affection for her audience, Reader Come Home charts a compelling case for a new approach to lifelong literacy that could truly affect the course of human history.
BookPage
[T]imely and important.... if you love reading and the ways it has enriched your life and our world, Reader, Come Home is essential, arriving at a crucial juncture in history.
Shelf Awareness
Wolf wields her pen with equal parts wisdom and wonder. The result is a joy to read and reread, a love letter to literature, literacy, and progress.
Washington Post
Wolf offers a persuasive catalog of the cognitive and social good created by deep reading…. She’s right that digital media doesn’t automatically doom deep reading and can even enhance it. She’s also correct that we have a lot to lose if we don’t pay attention to what we’re doing with technology and what it’s doing to us.
Lisa Guernsey
A love song to the written word, a brilliant introduction to the science of the reading brain and a powerful call to action. With each page, Wolf shows us why we must preserve deep reading for ourselves and sow desire for it within our kids. Otherwise we risk losing the critical benefits for humanity that come with reading deeply to understand our world.
International Dyslexia Association
Maryanne Wolf has done it again. She has written another seminal book destined to become a dog-eared, well-thumbed, often-referenced treasure on your bookshelf.... Reader Come Home conveys a cautionary message, but it also will rekindle your heart and help illuminate promising paths ahead.
Nature Lib
This rich study by cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf tackles an urgent question: how do digital devices affect the reading brain? Wolf explores the “cognitive strata below the surface of words”, the demotivation of children saturated in on-screen stimulation, and the power of ‘deep reading’ and challenging texts in building nous and ethical responses such as empathy…. An antidote for today’s critical-thinking deficit.
San Francisco Chronicle
Wolf is a lovely prose writer who draws not only on research but also on a broad range of literary references, historical examples, and personal anecdotes. The strongest parts of Reader, Come Home are her moving accounts of why reading matters, and her deeply detailed exploration of how the reading brain is being changed by screens…. Wolf makes a strong case for what we lose when we lose reading.
San Francisco Chronicle
Wolf is a lovely prose writer who draws not only on research but also on a broad range of literary references, historical examples, and personal anecdotes. The strongest parts of Reader, Come Home are her moving accounts of why reading matters, and her deeply detailed exploration of how the reading brain is being changed by screens…. Wolf makes a strong case for what we lose when we lose reading.
Washington Post
Wolf offers a persuasive catalog of the cognitive and social good created by deep reading…. She’s right that digital media doesn’t automatically doom deep reading and can even enhance it. She’s also correct that we have a lot to lose if we don’t pay attention to what we’re doing with technology and what it’s doing to us.
Nature
This rich study by cognitive scientist Maryanne Wolf tackles an urgent question: how do digital devices affect the reading brain? Wolf explores the “cognitive strata below the surface of words”, the demotivation of children saturated in on-screen stimulation, and the power of ‘deep reading’ and challenging texts in building nous and ethical responses such as empathy…. An antidote for today’s critical-thinking deficit.
Alberto Manguel
In this profound and well-researched study of our changing reading patterns, Wolf presents lucid arguments for teaching our brain to become all-embracing in the age of electronic technology. If you call yourself a reader and want to keep on being one, this extraordinary book is for you.
Boston Globe
Wolf has a profound respect for the beauty and power of the reading brain as well as a great curiosity about the digital brain that may soon displace it.
Claremont Review of Books
"A tour de force."
Julian Girdham
"[Reader, Come Home] is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of recent years. Wolf expresses with increasing forcefulness what is by now a common anxiety: that digital devices are challenging all of us (certainly not just children) in entirely new ways."
Sherry Turkle
This is a book for all of us who love reading and fear that what we love most about it seems to slip away in the distractions and interruptions of the digital world. Here we are challenged to take the steps to ensure that what we cherish most about reading —the experience of reading deeply—is passed on to new generations. Wolf is sober, realistic, and hopeful, an impressive trifecta. Her core message: We can’t take reading too seriously. And for us, today, how seriously we take it, will mark of the measure of our lives.
Catherine Steiner-Adair
Our best research tells us that deep reading is an essential skill for the development of intellectual, social, and emotional intelligence in today’s children. In our increasingly digital world – where many children spend more time on social media and gaming than just about any other activity – do children have any hope of becoming deep readers? In her must-read Reader Come Home, a game-changer for parents and educators, Maryanne Wolf teaches us about the complex workings of the brain and shows us when - and when not - to use technology.”
Brooklyn Digest
[Reader, Come Home] is necessary for these times, as… long-form writing is in crisis, and information is digested in small bits more than ever. With thought leaders like Wolf lending her thoughts to how we can preserve reading in its current form, we can have a brighter future. With Reader, Come Home, Wolf can now claim to have two ground-breaking works.
Stephanie Garber
An accessible, well-researched analysis of the impact of literacy.
Lisa Geurnsey
A love song to the written word, a brilliant introduction to the science of the reading brain and a powerful call to action. With each page, Wolf shows us why we must preserve deep reading for ourselves and sow desire for it within our kids. Otherwise we risk losing the critical benefits for humanity that come with reading deeply to understand our world.
Library Journal
★ 06/15/2018
Wolf (Tufts, Proust and the Squid) provides a mix of reassurance and caution in this latest look at how we read today. The author imagines a world in which young children learn to read on printed books so they can have that deep experience with language that is so important to learning and cognition. Then after the age of five they become exposed to screen reading and other technologies yet to be invented. Wolf is no technophobe and advocates using technology to promote literacy, especially for those who have difficulty learning to read or those in environments where there are not enough teachers. The book is divided into a series of letters from the author in which she describes how the brain reads, the advantages of deep reading, how screen reading changes us, and finally lays out her ideal learning plans. VERDICT Overall, a hopeful look at the future of reading that will resonate with those who worry that we are losing our ability to think in the digital age. Accessible to general readers and experts alike.—Cate Schneiderman, Emerson Coll., Boston
SEPTEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
Kristen Potter directs listeners through Wolf's incisive examination of the increased consumption of digital media over the written word—and its impact. The exponential growth of digital formats has measurably changed what readers read—therefore, what they absorb, think, learn, and communicate. This change, Wolf says, comes at a cost to our shared humanity. Sound alarmist? Perhaps, but when these ideas are considered through Wolf's persuasive lens and Potter's assured performance, listeners will have no choice to but to imagine what is at stake. The author’s arguments are made through a series of letters addressed to the listener, an effective conceit that Potter embraces through a measured pace and clear enunciation, further reinforcing the all-important transactional nature of reading and listening. A.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-05-01
A cognitive neuroscientist considers the effect of digital media on the brain.In this epistolary book, Wolf (Director, Center for Reading and Language Research/Tufts Univ.; Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century, 2016, etc.) draws on neuroscience, psychology, education, philosophy, physics, physiology, and literature to examine the differences between reading physical books and reading digitally. Access to written language, she asserts, is able "to change the course of an individual life" by offering encounters with worlds outside of one's experiences and generating "infinite possibilities" of thought. She is worried, however, that digital reading has altered "the quality of attention" from that required by focusing on the pages of a book. Researchers have found that "sequencing of information and memory for detail change for the worse when subjects read on a screen." Reading digitally, individuals skim through a text looking for key words, "to grasp the context, dart to the conclusions at the end, and, only if warranted, return to the body of the text to cherry-pick supporting details." This process, Wolf asserts, is unlike the deep reading of complex, dense prose that demands considerable effort but has aesthetic and cognitive rewards. Physicality, she writes, "proffers something both psychologically and tactilely tangible." The author cites Calvino, Rilke, Emily Dickinson, and T.S. Eliot, among other writers, to support her assertion that deep reading fosters empathy, imagination, critical thinking, and self-reflection. The development of "critical analytical powers and independent judgment," she argues convincingly, is vital for citizenship in a democracy, and she worries that digital reading is eroding these qualities. Borrowing a phrase from historian Robert Darnton, she calls the current challenge to reading a "hinge moment" in our culture, and she offers suggestions for raising children in a digital age: reading books, even to infants; limiting exposure to digital media for children younger than 5; and investing in teaching reading in school, including teacher training, to help children "develop habits of mind that can be used across various mediums and media."An accessible, well-researched analysis of the impact of literacy.
