This week: a peek into Danielle’s house where she lives with her husband and three young readers who are in kindergarten, third grade and fifth grade. This interview is a snapshot of what books her girls choose to read and the routines that Danielle deploys to make reading happen. You will see that reading is not seen as a chore in this household but rather something the girls look forward to as a way to relax and enjoy themselves before bedtime. Read more  about these book lovers below in this week’s, “Between the Chapters.”

What books does a busy mom who works at Google full-time like to read to her kids at night?  What books are her three kids loving?  Looking for book ideas for your kids or just generally wondering what reading life looks like for others?  Check out this week’s “Between the Chapters” interview with Rachel.

This week: a peek into how reading actually looks at home for Sarah, mom to Olivia (age 2.5 years). Here is a snapshot of what she reads aloud, what Olivia picks up on her own, and a little about the life happening around the books. This interview is the first of many to come as part of Booktrition’s “Between the Chapters” series.

A moment from Sunday that you know needs to be shared. The gravity of this moment doesn’t hit you immediately, but after you see your piano the next morning and recollect on your conversation with your friend, all you can do is smile. And then because it’s time for school and you can’t see this memory all the way through but then one of your kids at breakfast spontaneously mentions how much Kelsey (I’ve changed the name for privacy) loved playing the piano, you have the chance. You explain to your kids that in talking to your friends—Kelsey’s parents—they are now considering buying the piano keyboard we have. Why? They ask. And this is it—you have the opportunity to brag on behalf of the moral goodness of your friends and simultaneously teach a lesson to your kids about how as humans we are all vulnerable but capable of greatness at the same time.

This is the memory….

New years mean new goals, but according to psychologist Dr. Seth Meyers (in full disclosure, my big brother), adults are reporting more stress and burnout than ever. Adding something new to the plate, then, seems unappealing to say the least. So when making goals for 2026, it can be easier to reshape habits already in place, tweaking them to  make them, in effect, new. Dr. Seth highlights that modifying a habit already in place is far easier and much more likely to stick than beginning a new routine altogether.

As I sat down at my desk to think about my top books to recommend for World Kindness Day (November 13th), I couldn’t think of one. Instead, numerous titles bombarded my mind like rushing water bursting through floodgates. Initially, I thought this was a bad problem to have. How would I be able to whittle down an entire tree of ideas into just a few static recommendations? But as I began to ponder this conundrum, I soon realized that this was not only a good problem to have—it was a great problem to have; kindness is ubiquitous in children’s books.

To say I’ve had a love/hate relationship with graphic novels throughout my teaching years would be too dramatic; perhaps it has been more of a love/dislike relationship. A decade ago, it’s safe to say that I disliked graphic novels. I would cringe as my students picked up the Captain Underpants books during independent reading time. But now, just ten years later, my thoughts have shifted; I think I’m having more of a love/like relationship with them, and here’s why.

This entry is dedicated to Gail Geiger, my fourth grade teacher at Wiggin Street Elementary School in Gambier, Ohio.

It wasn’t until my ninth year of teaching that merely opening a book brought tears to my eyes.  At the end of the school year, I routinely put our classroom library books away in a storage cabinet so the Shady Hill summer camp could use the room. 

After reading an article in the New York Times entitled, “The Hack that Doctors Should Take from Popstars and Quarterbacks,” my mind went straight to reading. In fairness, my default is always to connect back to reading; literacy is a priority in my professional and personal life.

I remember it vividly; my sweet middle child cocooned on my lap. He was a kindergartener at the time, and was holding a book I’d given him to try his best to read aloud. I breathed in the aroma of shampoo from his recent bath and cherished our ritual of reading before bed – a habit we began at birth.