A short note for a slow day.
1 min read
Stories
Stories about reading,
children and family life.
Personal essays and practical ideas about raising readers, reluctant readers, family evenings and relationships, and the books that sometimes help us understand all of it.
Editor's selection
Life & Us
Sunday Notes: What My Child Taught Me About Slowing Down
A short note for a slow day.
1 min read
Reading Life
The Books We Remember From Childhood, and Why They Stay With Us
Most of us can't remember the plot of a book we loved at eight, but we remember exactly how it felt. Why childhood books stay with us for life, and what that means for the stories we give our children now.
2 min read
Parents & Children
What Age Should a Child Start Reading Independently?
At what age do children start reading on their own? The range is wider than most parents expect. What independent reading looks like at different ages, and why reading aloud should continue long after it starts.
1 min read
The Weekly Letter
One letter a week about reading and family life.
Once a week: a short personal note, one article about reading or family life, one practical idea to try, and a question you can answer just by replying. One email a week, never a sales pitch.
Parents & Children
Reading with children is rarely only about books.
Parents & Children
Reading Is Not Homework. Let's Stop Treating It Like One.
Logs, minutes and signatures have their place. Home doesn't have to be it.
1 min read
Love & Relationships
Stories about the ways we find each other, lose each other and sometimes find our way back.
Love & Relationships
20 Questions to Ask Your Partner Instead of “How Was Your Day?”
“Fine” is not an answer. It's a door closing politely.
1 min read
Reading Life
Our odd, changing, lifelong relationship with reading itself.
Reading Life
I Took the Stars Off ALMA
Every book I recommended had five of them. That was the problem.
3 min read
Books & Reviews
Reviews with a point of view: what a book understands about people, and what didn't work.
Books & Reviews
15 Books to Read Before Your Child Turns 7
Not a checklist. A shelf of stories worth sharing while they still want you to read them aloud.
Life & Us
The ordinary, unglamorous parts of being a person, and the books that sometimes help with them.
Life & Us
We Don't Need Another Perfect Family Routine
The routines on our phones are beautiful. Ours just has to survive a Tuesday.
1 min read
Latest stories
Parents & Children
How to Choose Books for a Reluctant Reader
Choosing books for a reluctant reader is less about levels and more about hooks. How to find books a child who avoids reading will open, finish and ask about, with simple questions to guide every choice.
1 min read · 28 October 2026
Parents & Children
Is My Child Behind in Reading? What Parents Should Look For
Is my child behind in reading, or just reading at their own pace? What's normal varies more than parents think. The signs worth paying attention to, the ones that aren't, and when to talk to a teacher.
2 min read · 26 October 2026
Parents & Children
10 Questions to Ask Your Child After Reading a Book
Ten questions to ask children after a story that open a real conversation instead of testing them. No right answers, no comprehension quiz, just ways into what your child noticed and felt.
1 min read · 22 October 2026
Parents & Children
What to Do When Your Child Says “Reading Is Boring”
“Reading is boring” is one of the most common things children say about books. What it usually means, what not to say back, and practical ways to help a child find a book that isn't.
1 min read · 21 October 2026
Parents & Children
Why Some Children Love Books and Others Avoid Them
Why does one child devour books while another avoids them? It's rarely intelligence or laziness. The quieter reasons children turn away from reading, and what a parent can change.
1 min read · 19 October 2026
Parents & Children
The 10-Minute Bedtime Reading Habit I'd Start Tonight
Bedtime reading doesn't need an hour, a perfect book or a calm child. A ten-minute habit that fits into an ordinary evening, and why its smallness is exactly what makes it last.
1 min read · 16 October 2026