Entering Bangkok’s Neilson Hays Library is like launching an adventure into time travel. Not a computer can be seen, card catalogs still hold sway, and books–no video cassettes or DVDs–wait behind glass doors in old-fashioned bookcases. Patrons remove their shoes before entering the building, and the smooth, highly polished wooden floor feels like satin beneath the soles of bare feet.

Make no mistake about it, this is a true library, not a museum, and nowhere is that more evident than in the children’s section. Shelves built over 140 years ago hold Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and Montana prodigy Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series. They are joined by modern classics–Hatchet and The Outsiders, Edward Eager’s Knight’s Castle, Arthur Ransome, Enid Blyton, and all of Mary Poppins, as well as the more venerable Don Quixote, Lorna Doone, and The Pathfinder.  Among this august company is Mitali Perkins’ wonderful novel, Rickshaw Girl, the story of a Bangladeshi girl who transforms her talent for painting alpanas, the traditional patterns that adorn household walkways and thresholds, into a financial contribution for her family.

It’s a good thing that bean-bag chairs are near the picture books, because this is a corner that demands lingering, filled with gorgeous books from all over the English-speaking world. New Zealand’s wonderful Hairy MacLary lives here, as does Where the Giant Sleeps, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky–and a treasure from New York City’s Chinatown that deserves–and will soon receive–its own post.

Set in a serene little garden, with an adjacent cafe and outdoor tables, this library is an oasis of tranquility in a restless city. It’s not only a respite for Bangkok residents, the library also offers a welcome vacation from shopping and sightseeing for travelers, with a small charge for those who are not library members.

“…I believe reading aloud cures pretty well everything from warts to global warming,” says Mem Fox in her splendid book Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, now in a revised and updated edition.

After reading her essays about the true magic that comes from reading aloud, I don’t think this lady is exaggerating. If reading aloud to children can turn them into smart, inquisitive, creative people, then reading aloud may well hold the key to solving all of the world’s woes. What it is certain to do, according to Mem, is make children early, enthusiastic readers who will be passionate about books for their entire lives.

She backs this assertion up with some amazing stories. Her own daughter began reading fluently at four years of age, after two weeks at school. Her hairdresser’s child took great pleasure in reading aloud “with great expression and verve” when she was “barely six”, and her next-door neighbor Josephine was a happy and adventurous reader by the time she was three.

These children had two things in common–their parents had no idea where or how this reading miracle had occurred, and their lives had been filled with books read aloud to them by their parents, regularly and joyfully, as often as possible.

Reading aloud to a child, Mem explains, can take place in only fifteen minutes a day–as long as those fifteen minutes are interesting, intimate, and interactive. It’s an activity as simple as sitting and snuggling with a picture book, and being drawn into a story as much as the child being read to is. Talking about the book, wondering about its characters, letting the child see the words as the story unfolds–these, she says, are all keys to the act of reading, but the primary key is simply reading aloud.

She tells a wonderful anecdote about Einstein being asked by a mother how she could make her child intelligent, to which that great man responded by telling her to read her child fairy stories. The woman, thinking he was joking, laughed and asked what she should do after that. “Read him more fairy stories,” Einstein told her.

Reading to your children, Mem says, is an ongoing joy–from birth into their teens, parents and children can find common ground and common pleasure in reading aloud. Her lighthearted, chatty, intelligent essays in this book point the way–and her wonderful books for children (along with a list that she provides of twenty other books that children love, which includes Marjorie’s recommendation, Hairy MacLary from Donaldson’s Dairy) give parents splendid choices for beginning the adventure of reading to their children from the minute that they first meet.

It can, however, be a daunting prospect for some parents, so today on Books at Bedtime I’d like to focus on two resources which offer parents some tools to help make storytelling a joy for all concerned.

The first is the Storytelling Bibliographies page on The Center for Children’s Books’ website. These booklists encompass stories from all over the world which make great readalouds, arranged by themes such as Phases of the Moon, Tales about Fools, Latino Folktales, Native American Tales… The links to Storytelling Websites offer rich scope and I especially like the process advocated here for using a book as a springboard for someone to tell a story; and for listeners then to extend that storytelling experience. Such activities will lead children to love books and to love words themselves… the next generation of storytellers and writers?

And the other resource is Australian writer Mem Fox reading extracts from her book Reading Magic – her web-page And Do It Like This offers a step-by-step guide to reading stories aloud to children. She also has her 10 Read Aloud Commandments – here’s number 10 :

Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

And you can hear her putting all these hints and pieces of advice into action herself, reading three of her stories, including her avowed favorite Koala Lou: and she reads them beautifully.