The magic of story time: Why is reading aloud to kids so important?

As a teacher in San Jose Unified, Seena Hawley made a point of reading aloud to her fourth and fifth graders every day. Not only was it a highlight of their day, she also believes it boosted their reading comprehension and their sense of empathy.

“Storytelling can be very powerful in teaching,” said Hawley, who spent a dozen years in the classroom and now runs the Berkeley Baby Book Project, an affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which gives children a book a month from babyhood to age 5. “The best children’s literature, like all literature, engages children on deep human issues, at their level, while giving them steppingstones to the next levels.”