Reading aloud to bring the family together in the information age. By Richard Peck


The goal of my career is to write the book that brings the whole family together. I like to think I’m writing for people of ages ten until death. I try and put people of all generations in my stories because they are family stories. I think a book unites what the computer divides.

So the best response I get will be from families on vacations in the summer playing the audio version of one of my books while they’re away. The other good praise I get from parents is when they say “I bought two copies of your book one for my kid and one for my father.”

Because I write about the past: World War II, The Great Depression. I bootleg a little history to a generation of kids who are learning no history in school and will learn none in college.

I believe in good stories for all generations, all voices. The elderly characters in my stories may be the only old folks the reader’s got: If you don’t even have to write a thank you note for gifts from grandparents, you rob yourself of your roots. And I write a literature of family life to kids who bring laptops to the dinner table. It’s what I can do.

Transcriber’s Note: Richard Peck spoke to me in great detail about the loss of family and history in the context of the information age.  It was his idea that we encourage today’s teachers to bring a better-rounded education to the table so our children don’t lose touch with the past. What can teachers do to preserve and teach history in the stories that they teach? Is this something that you do in your classrooms?  

Check out Richard Peck’s summer post on teaching history through stories