I love to read aloud. I wish more books came with a readaloud guide. Sometimes, characters are introduced that deserve distinctive vocal styles that aren't obv

I love to read aloud. I wish more books came with a readaloud guide. Sometimes, characters are introduced that deserve distinctive vocal styles that aren't obvious right away. So after five lines of dialog, you find out the new character is a woman with a strong eastern-European accent, and you'd been reading her words like a man. Tolkien is wonderful to read aloud, except for the damn songs. You arrive at a song (some of which are relevant to the plot, so you you can't skip them) and mumble your way through it like one of the obscure psalms. Ugh. But soon the great prose flows again, and all is good. I read the whole of Harry Potter aloud to my kids, starting about age 5. The early books aren't too scary for a 5-6yo boy, though they get scarier. Those were the first books I read to them that I enjoyed too, a huge improvement over Cat in the Hat. Although audiobooks make reading aloud obsolete in some sense, I feel it's one of the most enjoyable obsolete activities.