Putting the Roar in Read-Aloud

A nearby city celebrates Read Aloud Day each fall, which is a grand tradition. Parents, grandparents, and volunteers like me head into public-school classrooms with picture books, and the children really look forward to it.  A committee selected the titles in advance and chose Michelle Knudsen's Library Lion for the third-grade. That's where I read, and Library Lion was a good fit for the eight year olds. I learn a little something every time I read to groups, and, really, I'd like to get a lot better at it. This time it was Let Them Roar. The reader in the class across the hall did just that. The Library Lion character roars inappropriately in the library before he learns the ropes. The children really liked the book and I could have involved them even more by allowing them to roar in the right places. You do have to play it by ear; these third-graders were part of a small class, where roaring would not have led to chaos.  Next time I'll remember to insert a bit of interactive theater into the experience.