Alexa Mergen's Blog - Posts Tagged "music"
Inflection & Attention
When I peruse children's books borrowed from the library, I am delighted when I find faint pencil marks by a previous reader. The marks note inflection in preparation for reading aloud. I imagine a teacher or librarian before an assembly of gathered upturned faces for whom the story lives in the reader's voice.
In a 1962 edition of "Sad Day, Glad Day," written by Vivian L. Thompson and illustrated by Lilian Obligado someone added an exclamation mark (!) after "Good idea" when Daddy agrees that Kathy should unpack her things in the apartment the family has just moved to. The reader deleted a dash (--) after "salad" to convey more smoothly "She had chicken salad on a pretty plate...."
Words to speak softly are underlined with a straight line, revelations underlined with a squiggly one; alliterative words are circled.
Reading aloud infuses a text with music. It reminds us that stories offered with delight are gifts; an audience, those who hear, are recipients and benefactors.
"Inflection" means the action of bending inward. Reading a book that others heard bows me closer to those listeners, some of whom may have since passed away, who shared in the sad day of a girl losing a friend, and the glad day of finding one again.
In a 1962 edition of "Sad Day, Glad Day," written by Vivian L. Thompson and illustrated by Lilian Obligado someone added an exclamation mark (!) after "Good idea" when Daddy agrees that Kathy should unpack her things in the apartment the family has just moved to. The reader deleted a dash (--) after "salad" to convey more smoothly "She had chicken salad on a pretty plate...."
Words to speak softly are underlined with a straight line, revelations underlined with a squiggly one; alliterative words are circled.
Reading aloud infuses a text with music. It reminds us that stories offered with delight are gifts; an audience, those who hear, are recipients and benefactors.
"Inflection" means the action of bending inward. Reading a book that others heard bows me closer to those listeners, some of whom may have since passed away, who shared in the sad day of a girl losing a friend, and the glad day of finding one again.
