Press Room

Local Author Signs Books About Read Aloud Learning

Posted on December 03, 2009

Signal Mountain educator Susan Frankenberg will share her tutorial talents with the local community during a book signing at Wild Hare featuring the second edition of her book, "Read Aloud Magic."

"I wrote the book because I feel the art of reading to children is one of the most important things a family can do together," said Frankenberg, who dreads the thought of books being stomped out by TV and computers. "The reason behind (my book) is to help other families, when they are all grown up, to have the memories that I have now."

Frankenberg said the memories she is referring to are the ones she created while reading with her three children throughout their formative years. Whether they were snuggling by the fire or sharing stories about nature and walks in the woods, she said the Frankenbergs would spend at least 10 minutes each day with a book, a habit that the author said helped her kids develop diverse vocabularies and strong reading comprehension skills.

In "Read Aloud Magic," Frankenberg shares her secrets for advocating education through family reading time. She doles out wisdom gleaned from her experiences as both a parent and a fourth-grade teacher at Lookout Mountain Elementary School, and people from around the world have already taken note.

Frankenberg said her book was recently requested by a non-profit organization in Indonesia that was in search of a tool to help teach parents and educators about the importance of reading.

"As a teacher, I see a significant difference between those (children) who were read to and those who were not," she said.

Frankenberg said she plans to write more books in the future, focusing on children’s literature and the gift of teaching children to write.

"(Reading and writing) is a passion of mine," she said.