Last week when we were at the library one of the kiddos wanted me to read to her.  I sat on a kiddie chair and read while my kids huddled around me.  Few minutes in, a little boy huddled with my kids to listen.  That was a bit strange, but he wasn’t being disruptive so it was all good.  I was a bit surprised and curious why this little boy stuck around to listen to me read.  Having a stranger join in our reading time isn’t so strange to me because it’s happened several times in the past when we’re in public places such as the library or the bookstore.  I believe little kids enjoy being read to, especially with pizazz!

Whenever I read to my kids, I try to read with pizazz, i.e. with dramatization.  Reading with dramatization isn’t something I learned from a class or something I’ve known all along.  Rather, it’s something I’ve learned along the way as a mom while teaching and interacting with my children.  Nowadays such pizazz comes quite naturally, only because I’ve had years of practice.  I find that reading stories without dramatization is so boring, but adding a little pizazz makes the characters and the story in the book come alive.  Reading in such a manner also helps teach children how to read out loud.  They learn when to pause, when to breathe, and which words or phrases to emphasize.  I’m already seeing the fruits of such technique in my oldest whenever he reads out loud to the other kids.

If you want to learn how to read with pizzaz, here are some tips I learned along the way:

• Assign a different voice for different characters.  I use a higher pitch voice for girls and a lower sounding voice for boys.  I usually have two different voices because more than that would be too cumbersome to keep track of.
• Read fast or slow depending on the situation.  Try to go with the flow of the book.  If something exciting is about to happen, read a bit faster to signal that something extraordinary is about to happen.  If the story is about a lazy Sunday afternoon where people are relaxing or strolling along, read at a slower pace so your readers get the idea that the setting is happening at a slow pace.
• Bring the characters out with attitudes.  If the character is angry, read it with anger.  If the character is happy, read it with cheerfulness.  If the character is sad, read it with great sadness.
• Act out the characters in the book.  When the main character is mad about something, I may act out the character’s anger by my facial expressions such as pouting or huffing.  I may even stomp my feet or cross my arms to show my character’s disgruntled state.
• Give your characters accents.  I admit that I’m not good with accents, but my husband is quite good.  Recently we’ve been reading books where the characters are from England.  Very naturally, my husband reads with British accents and mannerisms (granted to an actual Brit they’re probably fake, but I think they’re pretty good).  Only use accents when you know how to do it right, otherwise it may come off as condescending or demeaning to other cultures.  I’m not good with this one so I pretty much stay away from accents, unless it’s Chinese accents!
• If all that seems too much, listen to and emulate professional storytellers such Jim Weiss, whom we love to listen to!  Many of his stories (adaptations as well as original works) are available from our local library on CD.