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    The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
    The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
    The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction

    Written by Meghan Cox Gurdon

    Narrated by Meghan Cox Gurdon

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction.

    A miraculous alchemy occurs when one person reads to another, transforming the simple stuff of a book, a voice, and a bit of time into complex and powerful fuel for the heart, brain, and imagination. Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely from literature, The Enchanted Hour explains the dazzling cognitive and social-emotional benefits that await children, whatever their class, nationality or family background. But it’s not just about bedtime stories for little kids: Reading aloud consoles, uplifts and invigorates at every age, deepening the intellectual lives and emotional well-being of teenagers and adults, too.

    Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that this ancient practice is a fast-working antidote to the fractured attention spans, atomized families and unfulfilling ephemera of the tech era, helping to replenish what our devices are leaching away. For everyone, reading aloud engages the mind in complex narratives; for children, it’s an irreplaceable gift that builds vocabulary, fosters imagination, and kindles a lifelong appreciation of language, stories and pictures.

    Bringing together the latest scientific research, practical tips, and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will both charm and galvanize, inspiring readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most.

    Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 15, 2019
    ISBN9780062891334
    Author

    Meghan Cox Gurdon

    Meghan Cox Gurdon is an essayist, book critic, and former foreign correspondent who has been The Wall Street Journal's children's book reviewer since 2005. Her work has appeared widely, in publications such as The Washington Examiner, The Daily Telegraph, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and National Review. A graduate of Bowdoin College, she lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband, Hugo Gurdon, and their five children.

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    Reviews for The Enchanted Hour

    4.5/5

    106 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent book on Why it’s important to read to your children when they’re young, and the benefits of reading to adults. I knew some of the benefits of reading out loud to your children while they’re young I did not know to the effect of how good it was for your children to read to them out loud.
    • 5/5
      This book not only gives the historical background and statistics to why reading aloud to our children (and to each other) is so very critical...but it is read by the author with such a melodic and pleasant tone that makes you want to listen! I highly recommend this book!!!
    • 5/5
      I love and enjoyed read-alouds with my 3 homeschooled children when they were growing up. This book reinforced what we did and proved that the exercise was not futile.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I have read!!! Incredibly powerful and moving. I’m absolutely in love with this book and everything about it.
    • 5/5
      My three-year-old daughter has been a bibliophile from birth. I always assumed that when she became a proficient reader our hours snuggled up with books would fade away. The Enchanted Hour gave me permission to continue what makes sense and what I yearn for - reading to my child. I found myself getting excited listening to the audiobook, noting all the many titles I want to dive into. It gave me the affirmation not to shy away from books that might be scary or complex. I also have a sixteen-month-old son who, unlike his sister, will rarely sit still for even one simple board book. I'm motivated to keep reading to him. Reading while he's strapped into his high chair at meal times, or in the bath. Even in the background while he plays and occasionally takes interested in what I'm reading. In short, this book is a joy and an inspiration. It had me connected the whole way through.
    • 5/5
      What a gem of a book! I absolutely loved it!
    • 5/5
      What a fantastic book, I'm already reading to my unborn and ordered some books for baby to add to his/her already growing Library
    • 5/5
      If you’re a parent like me, this is essential. How can something so simple be powerful. Now that I have finished this book, I want to read it again and share it to as many parent as I can.
    • 5/5
      Good take on reading books with what today deems "inappropriate" themes for children in Chapter 7.
    • 5/5
      Such a great book. I already read to my child before listening to it because I’ve been hearing about the benefits of doing so and I can’t say enough how much my daughter loves it and seems to engage. But listening to this book, hearing all the facts of ‘why’ it is so important of reading aloud just affirms and gives me extra motivation of continuing and building this special memory with my loved ones.
    • 5/5
      Reading this has made me want to share The Enchanted Hour with everyone I know! What a concept! Spend time reading with your kids and they’ll reap the benefits. I love love love this and intend to pursue reading independently, to my students, and one day, to my children.
    • 5/5
      I really did love it! Brought up in a family where reading bedtime stories was non-existent, the author made me realize the importance of taking the time and trouble/effort to read to my children.
    • 4/5
      This was a very enjoyable read, that is, I had a good time reading it and was entertained and pulled along throughout. And while I think Gurdon does a good job laying out an argument for reading aloud (especially to children, though to anyone, really), her discussion often felt unnuanced, both in its seeming complete disavowal of screens (from reading Enchanted Hour you'd be forgiven feeling that Gurdon has never fallen in love with a movie or TV show or ever had an experience of sharing in an imaginative world that came from *anywhere else* than a book) and in the way it ignores real barriers to reading aloud (is she talking only to college-educated, middle-class, (white?) folks here? it seems like maybe she is. which, eh.). I also found myself wondering repeatedly if she had investigated whether reading aloud continued to work its magic with people who previously didn't like reading. Do parents who don't read themselves enjoy reading to their kids? Do their kids enjoy the read alouds? Do adults who don't like to read enjoy being read aloud to? So many questions unanswered. A nice read, and it makes it pretty clear that reading aloud is good for development and familial bonding, but there's so much work the book could have done that it doesn't that it's hard to recommend.
    • 3/5
      This book champions reading aloud to children and teens. The author cites research as she makes her arguments for its benefits. She briefly touches on benefits for the adult reading (or listening). Technological threats to reading aloud earns a place as a major theme. The book is perhaps too academic in tone for most adults and not academic enough for the academic market. The use of hidden end notes limits its academic usefulness even more. An appendix lists read-alouds, but its lack of annotation limits its usefulness to parents unfamiliar with the books. Still the book presents interesting information, but perhaps not in an engaging manner.
    • 5/5
      Excellent read for anyone! Hopefully it will inspire everyone to share reading aloud more at all ages. While much of the information is not new to educators, pediatricians, & some parents, it is still very relevant, especially as it relates to children using technology, versus being read to by an attentive reader. I especially enjoyed the vignettes of adults reading aloud to other adults, teachers reading to teenagers, and the amazing research about the value of reading to preemies!