401Z Fall 2026 The Joy of Reading Aloud to Young Children

Connecting with young children through books can be magical and heart-warming. This session will prime the pump by introducing books for ages 2-7 that spark interest right away and have proven to be absorbing read-a-louds in high demand. The class will point you to a diversity of age-appropriate storylines, topics, authors, and illustrators. Simple, fun, and performative techniques will be shared to enhance your reading pleasure. The use of a few props will be demonstrated as a tool for launching a story or piquing interest. The intent of this class is to inspire participants to read aloud with heightened confidence and joy.

Maggie Wrobel is a retired children's librarian and puppeteer. Preschool story time and bedtime story time were two of her activities. She enjoyed creating booklists on various topics to draw in lots of readers and listeners of varied attention spans and interests. She has two grandchildren ages 3 and 7.