Article: As with so many of...

As with so many of my books, the idea for You Read to Me, I'll Read to You came to me as a title. The idea for the very first children's book I ever wrote, published forty-five years ago (All My Shoes Come in Two's), popped into my head in the same way and under the same conditions - while I was taking a walk. And over the years I have learned to trust these serendipities - what I consider my best poems and stories have originated simultaneously in my head and in my feet! Cadence, rhythm, language - the music of the words themselves - it all starts there.

But there has to be something incubating inside me before the title presents itself. And in the case of You Read to Me, I'll Read to You, my abiding interest in reading as a shared activity was clearly the seed. And I was particularly inspired by my work with Literacy Volunteers of America, especially with their program for parents which uses picture books as texts, thereby teaching them simultaneously both how to read and how to read to their children. In recognition of this inspiration, I have dedicated the book to my colleagues at LVA.

Once the title, which incorporated the idea, came to me, I saw the book in my mind's eye, clearly visualizing the two voices talking to each other, each with a column of text of its own on either side of the page, coming together in a third central column when the voices joined. And I heard the two voices repeating the refrain at the end of each little story-play: "You read to me, I'll read to you." The voices were the voices of children, of course, and the subject matter would be the stuff of childhood: pets, games, clothes, food, birthdays, families.

The title/refrain dictated the cadence of the text and the back-and-forth play of the language. This strong pulse and regular rhyme serve as additional aids for the beginning reader. But all of this would be for naught if the book was not enjoyable. For the whole premise of You Read to Me, I'll Read to You is that reading is fun and that it is especially fun when we do it together. And it is even more fun when it is enhanced, as this book is, by Michael Emberley's brilliant and comical illustrations.

I love this book. I hope my readers do, too.

Copyright © Mary Ann Hoberman