Sean and Silas’s
Reading Adventure

When Sean was growing up as a kid, he said, it was nerdy to read, but not in their house.

The other day, Silas created the perfect recipe for storytelling: 10 pieces of white paper, a stapler, a bunch of crayons and a vivid imagination. Silas’ father, Sean, says lately Silas, 6, and his big sister, Raina, have been putting together their own books with household materials and writing their own unique stories.

“They wrote a story about a pirate who finds treasure on an island, but at the end of the story it turns out that the treasure was just a can,” Sean said. “They really get so imaginative.”

With two readers in the house and a two-year-old who is read to every night, protecting all their children’s right to read is important. To Sean, this means creating a reading environment at home with limited television time and plenty of room for the family’s large book collection, which includes advanced selections, like Moby Dick that Raina started to read.

Jammin’ with Jude

If a fly was in our house, it would be like, ‘These people...there is something going on with them, because everything turns into a song!’

There’s a musical future in store for Jude. His family has a song for everything—putting on shoes, another for when Jude wakes, and even a song when he goes to the bathroom. 

Jude’s father spent much of his life as a performer and his mom is also blessed with musical talent so music is a pillar of this family’s culture. 

Another pillar? Reading. 

There are books in every room, stashed in the backseat of the car, always within reach for Jude to feed his voracious curiosity.

For everyone in the family, reading isn’t just something to do, explains Lisa, “It’s something that helps us make sense of the world.” 

Thrillingly, Jude is on his way to reading on his own. On a recent family trip, he was pointing out the letters in words on street signs—something he hadn’t done before. 

Lisa credits her sister for her lifelong passion for reading. Her sister, who is five years older, made it fun for her and made sure they made time for books while their single mother worked long hours.

“My sister is the one who really helped me with the routine,” says Lisa. “And reading is honestly one of the things that kind of kept us off of the streets—you know what I’m saying?” 

And as her sister did for her, Lisa and her husband are making it easier for Jude by modeling good reading habits. 

Jude is always asking his parents (probably in the form of a song) to read to him. 

Jude’s favorite book is the classic Abiyoyo, adapted from the South African folktale about the giant who gobbles the village people until a boy with a ukulele uses music to soothe the hungry colossus and, with the help of his father, makes him disappear. 

You better believe there’s a song for that too.

Q&A with Heather Sapelbweyar

“One of those things is I make sure I have books in the house, whether they look at them right away or not.”

How do you make reading together a special time for your family?

I tap their interest. The books come second; their interests come first. 

Both boys want to be biologists.

My eldest has memorized all the animals in these encyclopedias. The covers come off and the pages are falling out because they’ve been read so many times. 

When they were very small, we went around the city and visited a multitude of museums, like the Academy of Natural Sciences. The museums became some of their favorite places to go. 

How do you create and imagine together as a family?

That’s our jam. We take everyday items and turn them into something unexpected. 

Boxes are always great, but plastic grocery bags are the big hit at our house. A big hit. We’ll take plastic bags, rip them up, and turn them into dragons. We’ve turned them into octopus. We’ve turned them into fish. 

My kids just dance around with these bags. Whatever they seem to look like, suddenly they turn into that. 

Does your family celebrate success in school?

We don’t celebrate holidays because of our Muslim faith. What we celebrate are good grades and school awards. They get prizes and gifts for their academic achievements.

So when they do something cool at school, we talk it up. When it’s report card time, I’ll tell them it’s time to figure out what your prize is gonna be. 

How do you protect your children’s right to read?

I try to create opportunities to do things they might not do in school. 

One of those things is I make sure I have books in the house, whether they look at them right away or not. 

It’s almost like when you give them vegetables and they keep turning them away, but you still keep putting it on the plate. I’m gonna keep putting this broccoli on this plate, and one day it’ll be delicious.