Between the Chapters: Meet Rachel
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.
“Between the Chapters” is an interview series about how reading actually happens at home. It’s not about idealized book lists or what we wish we were reading. Instead, this series is about what real parents read aloud, what their kids reach for on their own, and the everyday context surrounding those choices. Each interview offers a small glimpse into a family’s reading life—plus a little about the parent. The goal is to swap book ideas, see how other families make reading work, and inspire you to try new—or more realistic—approaches in your own home.
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I first met Rachel in our neighborhood sometime in 2015. I say “sometime” because we were both in the sleep-deprived hazy stage of having an infant (or infants—I can’t even remember how many each of us had at that stage) and simultaneously being pregnant with the next to come. We both ended up with three spirited kids who attend the local elementary school to which we are so fortunate to walk. In the mornings before school, you can often see a blur of some subset of our kids trying to make it before the 8:30am start. On the way home from school, I often see Rachel’s middle child reading a book as she walks. I’ve known that her kids all like to read, but before this interview, we hadn’t before talked in detail about literacy. Here is what we talked about:
What books are your girls loving right now?
Annabel (age 12) loves the tween romances that are just a little bit spicy and so she reads the four books in the Twilight series on repeat.
Ellie (age 9) loves to read graphic novels, mostly fantasy, and so right now she is big into the Manga books.
Lulu (age 6) also loves graphic novels and right now is into the Dog Man and Cat Kid series
What books have you enjoyed reading aloud to the girls?
So many. We’ve loved the chapter books like Mercy Watson, Ivy and Bean, Gumluck, and Dory Fantasmagory.
For picture books, anything by Julia Donaldson like The Gruffalo series and Room on the Broom. The Mother Bruce series by Ryan T. Higgins is amazing, and the lesser known books by Mo Willems like Nanette’s Baguette and Leonardo, The Terrible Monster.
What is your reading routine?
Each night we typically do brush teeth, pajamas, books, bed. Annabel and Ellie read independently while Lulu will read aloud to me and then I read aloud to her. The books she reads to me are usually the books that come home from school in the book bag that her teacher has asked her to read to a parent.
How does it make you feel when you see your girls reading books?
Like I have done something right. Sometimes I feel deficient in so many other way, but when they are reading a book, I feel like I’ve done something that is going to set them up for life. It’s a lifetime hobby. And there’s evidence that reading fiction helps to develop empathy and so I think that’s so important too. My mom and I still share book recommendations and so it’s also something I hope I can always share with my girls and have in common.
What do you do for yourself to indulge?
I have a second cup of coffee, and I have been known to Doordash a Tatte latte every once in a while. My order often also includes a baked good of some kind.
And I know you’re going to think this is false because we are talking about Booktrition, but I read during the day on weekends. I escape up into my bed or on the couch sometimes.
Do you think teachers should recommend books?
I absolutely think they should. I had a really hard time especially when Annabel was in fifth grade and I couldn’t find good middle-grade books. So I asked Annabel’s fifth grade teacher and she gave me a list of some book recommendations
What else in terms of literacy and beyond are you curious about?
I guess my question would be about graphic novels. Ellie in particular loves graphic novels and it’s almost all she reads at this point. I wonder if that’s okay? I know you’ve said they’re great in moderation so I’d want to know how else to shift her to some books that aren’t graphic novels and have full sentences.
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In between these questions, we also had a few ancillary discussions that were equally as interesting. Rachel mentioned that she and her husband, Sam, often play hangman with the girls when they are at restaurants. “We do the same! My kids love hangman!” I enthusiastically interjected. But then we began to talk about the name “hangman” and how it feels a little gruesome to use with our young kids. I guess I’m mentioning this in case anyone has a good alternative name that we can begin using? Send help and ideas to askbooktrition@gmail.com!
We also talked about how Rachel’s favorite book from childhood (An Acceptable Time—the fifth book in the Wrinkle in Time series) is a book that her fifth-grade teacher read aloud. This reminded me of how much my own children gravitate to the books at home that they have seen in the classroom. And together, both of these examples illustrate how powerful the home-school connection is when it comes to literacy and the books our children choose. We certainly need to find more ways to keep open communication between teachers and parents around books in the classroom, whether it’s book recommendation lists or just a quick mention of titles recently read in newsletters that go out to parents.
And then from there, we began to wrap up our conversation by talking about how much we both feel like the home reading culture can influence how much our kids like to read. Similar to my house, Rachel mentioned that there are books in every room of her house—from the playroom to their bedrooms. Her girls are surrounded by books, and they even have their own cozy Ugg blankets they use when reading. These blankets are their favorite reading accessory.
It’s funny, these interviews—I feel like I get to know people even better just by talking about books. Even for people like Rachel who I see almost every day, I realize that books and the behaviors that surround them really say so much more than the books themselves. I hope you’ve found a book, literacy or life idea that you can take with you. Ideally these interviews will begin to help us all recognize that one of the best ways we can begin to enhance literacy at home is by sharing ideas with each other. I know that Rachel, for one, fits into this curious boat. When asked what she’d like to see or hear about how everyone else with busy lives and kids handles things at home, she said, “I mean, everything.”