Emily Carter

If your child can sound out words confidently but seems lost when you ask what a story was really about, you are not alone. I hear this from parents every week. Their child reads aloud smoothly, answers surface-level questions, and then draws a blank the moment the conversation turns to feelings, motives, or “why.” What … Read more

Every week, thousands of teachers hand out reading passages followed by a list of comprehension questions. Students answer the questions. Teachers grade them. And then everyone moves on to the next passage. After years of this cycle, the reading scores barely budge. This is the central problem: comprehension questions don’t teach comprehension. They measure it. … Read more

I spent years picking up “thick” books, reading the first chapter, and feeling completely lost. I’d hit a wall of unfamiliar words and quietly return the book to the shelf. It was not a motivation problem. It was a vocabulary problem, and I had no idea how to build vocabulary that supports reading comprehension until … Read more

If you have ever watched your child devour a graphic novel in one sitting and wondered whether that “counts” as reading, you are not alone. I have heard this question from parents, grandparents, teachers, and even school librarians. The short answer is yes, absolutely, graphic novels for kids count as real reading, and the research … Read more

You’ve read Goodnight Moon 47 times this week. You know every word of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by heart. And you might be wondering if your child will ever pick up a different book. Take a breath. Yes, learning how to help a child who only wants to reread the same book is a real … Read more

Watching your child reach for the same easy picture book when they can clearly read chapter books feels confusing. You know they can do harder work, so why do they choose something below their level? If your child only wants easy books below their level, you’re not alone. We’ve heard from hundreds of parents who … Read more

If your tween used to devour books and now barely touches them, you are not alone. Research from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that reading for fun drops sharply between ages 9 and 13, and the decline has been steepening for over a decade. The good news is that this phase is normal, … Read more

Your child loved chapter books last year. Now, the same kid who refused to put down a flashlight and a Junie B. Jones novel suddenly acts like reading is a punishment. The library is “boring.” Independent reading time is “stupid.” You’re left wondering what changed, and whether you did something wrong. This is one of … Read more

How the Caldecott Medal winner is actually chosen comes down to a 15-member committee of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) who read, debate, and vote on hundreds of picture books over nearly a year. Winners are announced each January during the American Library Association’s LibLearnX conference after a multi-round ballot process that … Read more

Few things drain a parent’s evening faster than the nightly battle over assigned school reading. You ask your child to open the book, and suddenly there’s a stomachache, a sudden need for a snack, or an existential declaration that “reading is the worst thing ever.” You’re not alone, and you’re not failing. Our team at … Read more