Reading To Children
Has Many Benefits

Continued from Page L-1

says Ms. Becher. She pinpoints
two findings.
Children who scored higher on
reading tasks were those who talked
most about the story and asked the
most questions while the story was
being read.
Youngsters who scored
significantly higher on reading
achievement tests and had "more
highly developed and expanded
concepts" had been read to by
parents who talked with them about
the books they read together.
Children whose parents read but
didn't discuss did not do as well!
Research findings indicate that
the following parental practices have
beneficial effects on children's
development as readers:

• Asking "warm-up questions"
before beginning the book,
• Asking a variety of questions
during the reading — informational,
anticipatory, inferential, evaluative,
etc.,
• Asking follow-up questions at
the end of the story,
• Having general discussions
with the child about books he has
read.
Teachers should make sure that
parents don't put too much pressure

on their children to learn to read,
Ms. Becher emphasizes. Nagging
has a negative effect on kids.
Reasonable expectations and low-
key, natural interest encourages
them. Giving parents lists of
resource materials on good books
for their children helps them make
wise choices at the library or
bookstore and keeps the read-aloud
sessions going.
Reprinted by permission from
Growing Child Research Review.

Books Sacred
To Jewish Life

During the Holocaust era, why
did the Germans burn Jewish
books?
Why are Torah scrolls and
prayerbooks given the same burial
rights as human beings?
—Submitted by the
L'Chayim staff

Book Fair Slates
Events For Families

The 37th annual Jewish Book
Fair, slated Nov. 12-20 at the
Maple/Drake Jewish Community
Center will feature some speakers
and programs aimed specifically at
families.
At 3 p.m. Nov. 13, Ralph and
Lori Schoenstein, authors of
Diamonds for Lori and Me, will be
the guest speakers, sponsored by
the family program department of
the Jewish Center. Schoenstein has
written for the New York Times, the
New Yorker and Punch and has
won a Playboy award for humor and
the Grantland Rice Award for
sportswriting.
Stuart Rogoff, director of family

cehaffa-ll

THE JEWISH NEWS

20300 Civic Center Drive
Suite 240
Southfield, Michigan 48076
October 28, 1988
Associate Publisher Arthur M. Horwitz
News Editor Heidi Press
Jewish Experiences for Families
Adviser Harlene W. Appleman
Illustrator Neil Beckman

L-2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1988

programs at the Center and a
musician in his own right, will
present musical programs for
children in grades four-eight at 10:15
a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Nov. 13 and 20.
He is the former music director of
Hillel Day School and former youth
director at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek.
Arlene Kingston, author of The
Bagels Are Coming, will entertain
children in kindergarten through
grade three at 10 and 11 a.m. Nov.
13 and 20. She appears regularly on
WXYZ-TV's "Daedel Doors."
Jerry Markbreitt, author of Born
to Referee, My Life on the Gridiron,
will speak about his experience as a
Big 10 referee at 7 p.m. Nov. 16,
sponsored by the Michigan Jewish
Sports Hall of Fame.
Dennis Dooley, co-editor with
Gary Engle of Superman at 50, will
be the guest speaker at 2 p.m. Nov.
20, sponsored by the family
program department.
Anita Diamant, journalist and
author of The Jewish Baby Book '88
will be the guest of Jewish
Experiences For Families at 10 a.m.
Nov. 20.
For information about the Book
Fair programs, call the Jewish
Center, 661-1000, ext. 293.

Books: The Blessed Vehicles Of Jewish Learnin'

Continued from Page L-1

more, we are a people who love
books. One ancient axiom has it,
"What is public property in a city?
The marketplace, the synagogue,
the mikvah, the Ark of the Torah
and the books." Our most sacred
object is called the Sefer Torah —
the Torah book. And look at how it
is reverenced — dressed in finery
reminiscent of the garb of the priest
in the Temple of old.
Just going to the Ark where it is
kept and taking it out is the most
dramatic moment of a worship
service. And then, before it is read,
it is — in many congregations —
literally paraded about through the
congregation. And the worshippers
express their reverence — and love
— for it, not abstractly or
theoretically, but tangibly and
graphically. People reach out to
touch it or kiss it. People embrace
it. This is the book at the heart of
Jewish life. There can be no doubt
how Jews feel about it.
' Under the oppressive Roman
occupation of Judea it was made
illegal for Jews to study Torah. In
those days Jewish heroes gave up
their lives to study. Rabbi Akiba
taught that to be a Jew without
studying was to be like a fish out of
water. Literally thousands died for
the "crime" of being a student —
died for love of the book.
Our history itself is embodied in
the very physicality of the book. The
most glorious moment of our history
began with an act of writing — God
engraved words on the tablets of

the law. Someone has said that for
the 2,000 years of our dispersion
Jews lived in the book. In the
absence of a homeland, our
horizons were its margins, its pages
were the only territory we could call
our own.
For generations the most
authentic Jewish act was to read.
We read our prayers from a book —
to pray was to read. And to read
was to pray. The very act of
studying was regarded as sacred.
To study was to devote oneself
wholeheartedly to God. For Jews
studying the sacred book was no
mere pastime for the leisured few.
Rich and poor read. And they read
not for relaxation or for pleasure, not
to entertain themselves, or even to
be "informed."

They read because the book
became life itself. For many it was
better to live poorly and devote
oneself to study than to engage in
the pursuits of material life. In the
cities, towns and shtetlach of the
"old country," it is said, there were
houses of study for every sector of
society. Warsaw, for instance, took
pride in the proliferation of batei
midrash within its borders, including
one study house for wagon drivers.
In that universe of the Book,
the yodea sefer — the one who
really knew the book — was the
true nobility. To give yourself to your
studies was not a subject of ridicule.
While some societies found the
"perpetual student" to be the object