The Magic of Reading Aloud: ‘Picture Books Are Meant to Be a Social Experience’

Entrepreneurs Matt and Melissa Hammersley discuss the powers of reading aloud and what inspired them to start their business, Novel Effect.

Reading aloud can strengthen emotional bonds. Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock

Husband and wife entrepreneurs Matt and Melissa Hammersley have been helping parents and educators delight in reading aloud to children for more than a decade.

From their innovative app Novel Effect, which was featured on the hit television show “Shark Tank” and enhances the read-aloud experience, to their new book, “Rock Your Read Aloud: Sparking Curiosity and Confidence in Little Readers,” they’re passionate about encouraging parents and educators to read aloud to children.

We asked them about the benefits of doing so and why it’s so important. Here’s what they said.

Matthew and Melissa Hammersley present their business, Novel Effect, to the investors on "Shark Tank." Courtesy of the Hammersleys

The Epoch Times: Novel Effect, the digital app you created, uses voice recognition to complement the experience of reading children’s books aloud, incorporating sound effects and music that coincide with the story being read. How did you come up with this idea?

Matt and Melissa Hammersley: As a married couple preparing for our first child, the idea for Novel Effect came to us at our baby shower. The hosts had asked guests to gift books with handwritten notes in them to build our daughter her own little library. Like all first-time parents, we had no idea what we were getting into, but we did know how important reading to her would be.

During the shower, Matt listened and watched as a friend read aloud; she added her own silly voices and sound effects. The children were locked in and the adults laughed and became enchanted by the story and the storyteller. He saw that reading aloud together as a family was about so much more than a collection of books. Yes, it was about the book and the story, but it was also about the people, us, and the moments of joy we would share in the experience of reading together. And a light bulb went off: If every read aloud could be that fun and engaging, our kid—or any kid—would easily discover the joy of reading.

The idea stuck with us, creeping up in conversations daily, then filling our free time between work, diaper changes, and naps. By the time our future bookworm turned six months old, we had our first soundscape for “The Little Engine That Could,” and Novel Effect was born!

The Epoch Times: What have you learned about the impact that reading aloud has on children and families?

The Hammersleys: From what we’ve seen and experienced ourselves, reading aloud together often is one of the most important things a family can do. Not only does it set our children up for success early on in school as well as later in life, it has a profound impact on how they understand themselves, their neighbors, and the world around them. Beyond the clear positive impacts to learning and essential literacy skills, reading together also builds strong relationships, establishes healthy routines, and inspires children to read more often.

Any book, but especially picture books, are meant to be a social experience. Families that spend time together face-to-face with each other and reading stories share a common language built on phrases but also moments and memories. When parents read aloud regularly with their children, they strengthen that bond and teach that there is value in thinking, learning, and dreaming.

Creating routines around reading together provides consistency for children and families; it reinforces emotional connections we can all look forward to sharing. Our kiddos’ days are busy and overwhelming sometimes too. Knowing they can and will always be able to find their way back to us and we can escape into new or familiar worlds together invites opportunities to share, process, and talk about what is happening in our daily lives. Most importantly, when our children see the grown-ups in their lives make reading, literacy, and knowledge an essential point of any day, they begin to incorporate that into their own choices. It’s very unlikely, although it does happen, to find a child who doesn’t enjoy reading a lot in a family of readers.

Reading aloud together, especially from diverse and rich titles, improves the lives of children and their families, instilling a love of reading, developing literacy skills, and encouraging social, emotional, and cognitive growth. When we make time together for read-alouds, we’re taking part in something truly magical, and more important now than ever, we’re creating the next generation of well-read learners who will make the world a better place for us all.

The Epoch Times: Why do you believe literacy rates continue to decline in America?

The Hammersleys: The recent national scorecard was disappointing, showing across-the-board declines in literacy rates. There isn’t necessarily one cause for this. What we see is that as a society we’ve slowly moved away from placing value in spending time really reading something deeply. Teaching to the test, providing tools that do the reading for us and tell us what it means, and a lack of reading role models in our community devalue the act of reading.

We owe it to our children to change this. We know there’s an army of concerned parents, committed educators, and driven literacy experts working to do just that because we’ve met so many of them. But it can’t be done alone. We need to provide better tools and resources that build literacy skills in every home and classroom, encourage reading, and make it fun. We’ve evolved into a society of digital natives, searching out the next dopamine hit from an alert to something we’ve “missed out” on in the online world of short attention spans and passive consumption.

As grown-ups we need to bring our children back to the real world and put physical books in their hands. We should talk to them about what they’re reading, what it makes them think and feel, and encourage them to go deeper. Showing our children through our actions, not just our words, that reading and being literate, and thinking for ourselves is a critical part of growing up and part of our duty to them. It leads to better outcomes for individuals, communities, and the world. Not to mention there’s fun in reading deeply and sharing that experience with other people.

To get lost in a book and travel somewhere you’ve never imagined, to try on someone else’s shoes and understand something new or different. If America continues to treat and view reading as a job to be done, a box to check off, or even a danger to our children, then we’ve turned it into a chore and a burden, something to fear rather than embrace wholeheartedly, and we’ve set our children up for failure.

The Epoch Times: What inspired you to write your new book, “Rock Your Read Aloud: Sparking Curiosity and Confidence in Little Readers?”

The Hammersleys: Ten years ago, before immersing ourselves in read-alouds and early literacy, we were parents just getting started, lacking direction and knowledge on how to make reading a central part of our children’s lives. We didn’t have answers to questions we had back then, like what should we read together or how do I make reading something we all look forward to. But we were determined to find the answers for ourselves and make sure they were put into practice in our own home.

We’ve been lucky in this time to be surrounded by dedicated and brilliant teachers, librarians, and other parents who had similar questions and were gracious enough to share their knowledge and experiences at home, in the library, and in the classroom. We wrote this book because we wanted to share what we’ve learned and seen with anyone who wants to spark amazement, wonder, and excitement about reading through the art of the read-aloud. Research proves that reading to children enhances language development, boosts academic performance, and inspires lifelong readers. By sharing the tools, tips, and tricks we’ve picked up along the way, we hope it will empower parents and teachers to work together to give children the foundation they need to develop the necessary skills to grow as readers and discover the joy of reading.

"Rock Your Read Aloud" by Matthew and Melissa Hammersley. Courtesy of the Hammersleys

The Epoch Times: What do you wish more parents and educators understood about reading aloud to children?

The Hammersleys: Especially as parents, it’s not always easy to know how to get involved in ensuring that our kids grow to love learning and reading. It takes combined effort both at home and in school. Learning to read is hard work; it’s not something our brains are innately wired to do, and if it turns into a task that creates anxiety and stress, children will avoid doing it.

We have to make time to have fun reading and sharing the magic in books together. Stop thinking about reading like a grownup. Some days you may have to dig down deep, but when you pick up a book to read aloud, try to remember and rediscover the sense of wonder you had at the world as a child between its pages. Read to your kids as much as you can; let go of the guilt you might feel when you don’t or the frustration you feel when it doesn’t go quite the way you imagined. Relax and let go, be present, and just read with your kids. If you do that consistently, you’ll find that given all the other options available to them, they will choose reading time and again.

The Epoch Times: What would you say to a busy parent who understands that reading aloud is important, but believes they don’t have the time?

The Hammersleys: We get it! We’re parents to two busy and growing littles and we run a busy and growing business together. Life can get a little chaotic sometimes. To be honest, even our family gets into the occasional reading rut. While it’s true that it’s never too early to start reading with your children, it’s also never too late to start or to start again!

To support your emerging reader at home, the best thing you can do is make reading together fun. Read their favorite books, even if you’ve already read them 20 times this week. Seek out new book recommendations from teachers or other families, and introduce stories that also interest you. Change things up and borrow books from the library that are different from what you have on your shelves at home. Talk about what’s happening in the story, introduce new words at their level, do the silly voices, add a soundscape! Do whatever you can to keep reading exciting, interesting, and new.

When you show that books are something to enjoy, you’re setting an example they’ll want to recreate together and then on their own. On top of that, slowing down to read together sends a powerful message that your kids and their interests matter to you. You’ll set them up for a lifetime of success when you put literacy at the heart of your family life at every chance. And there are benefits for you too! After all, there are probably no sweeter words to a parent’s ears than “I’m ready for bed—can we read a book?”

The Epoch Times: What’s your favorite children’s book?

Matt Hammersley: There are so many great ones it is a difficult question to answer, but one of my newer favorites is “The Scarecrow” by Beth Ferry. It pulls at your heartstrings, tapping into the cycle of life and our relationship with our children. I tear up every time!

Melissa Hammersley: It really is so hard to choose! Most recently, I fell in love with “The Yellow Bus” by Loren Long. The entire team dug into this one as we kicked off the soundscape design process, and it was so fun to slow down together and really examine the storytelling, thoughtfulness, and craft that went into it.

The back story behind Long’s illustrations fascinated me as an artist who got her start building models at school in the fifth grade. If you have the chance to read it, don’t skip the author’s note at the end. In addition to the universal themes of the story—new beginnings, happiness, and hope—learning more about the creativity and process behind the book will spark some interesting conversations with your kids or students!

Our whole family, grandparents included, loved “The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza” by Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris. We’d get in trouble with our kiddos if we didn’t share that series as a favorite too—we gifted quite a few copies to friends last year.

The Epoch Times: What motivates you to continue this work?

The Hammersleys: There’s nothing better than sharing the power of reading and storytelling with others! We feel incredibly lucky to be just a tiny part of children discovering new worlds and ideas through books for the first time. There’s so much joy in children’s literature. By design, it’s meant to be read together, and those real authentic moments are always at the forefront of our work at Novel Effect.

We’re grateful to receive messages from educators, librarians, parents, and, sometimes, the occasional kiddo about the magic they feel when they read aloud with a soundscape. The lasting impact our team has on kids and their grownups’ relationship with literacy fills our bucket every day.

We’ve experienced firsthand the spark that happens by putting the right book in a child’s hands at the right time. At this moment in history it seems more important than ever that the world, and especially our children, share diverse books and the ideas and knowledge within them. By supporting educators and parents in their pursuit to create that spark and raise lifelong readers, we know we’re helping to create a better future. There aren’t many better motivators than that.