When my kids were very little, someone (I think it was Rader's first Montessori teacher, Miss Samantha) recommended Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook* to me. First published in 1982, and currently in its 2019 revised and updated eighth edition, this amazing book has been helping kids fall in love with reading for decades.⠀
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For me — as someone who has fantastic, specific memories of being read to, and then excitedly became the reader-aloud — it was a treasure map. And the greatest treasure I discovered therein was Newbery Honor author Gary Paulsen and his best-known adventure book, Hatchet. A mid-30s mom was not the target audience of this book, about a young teenager learning to survive on his own in the wilderness after a plane crash. But I was transported. I loved it, and after I read it (first myself, before the kids were old enough to read it to them), any time I saw one of Paulsen's books somewhere, I bought it and read it immediately.⠀
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I read Hatchet aloud to my kids probably when they were in elementary school. Rader wasn't someone who read for pleasure, but he was an avid listener, and it was a story I wanted him to hear — an adventure I wanted him to have.⠀
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I was saddened to hear that Gary Paulsen died this week at the age of 82. I am so glad to have shared those hours with my kids in the wild world he created. Thank you, Gary Paulsen. All the best to you in your next adventure.⠀
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Photo of Paulsen: Brian Adams/Getty Images @brianadamsphotography (Please visit Adams' Instagram page to read his own adventurous story of how he came to take the photo below.)⠀
Photo of our copy of Hatchet: @mattparker.art
* Jim Trelease’s original Read-Aloud Handbook website, and successor Cyndi Giorgis’ site