← Totally Booked with Zibby
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- [00:00]
Zibby Owens
Hi listeners, we have totally booked live coming up this fall and I hope you'll be a part of it. We have three events in New York City, September 19th, 25th and 30th in New York where I'll be doing six interviews live each day. We also have a petite retreat in Greenwich on October 4th. Go to zibbemedia.com and event or and or eventbrite and search the events and please come. I can't wait to meet you in person.
- [00:31]
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- [00:59]
Sleep Number Advertiser
Done why Choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed?
- [01:03]
Ilana Kurshan
Can I make my site softer?
- [01:04]
Grainger Advertiser
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler?
- [01:08]
Sleep Number Advertiser
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- [01:34]
Zibby Owens
Today's episode has been sponsored by Digipod. As someone who's passionate about books and authors, I'm always excited to share resources that can help bring your stories to life. That's why I am thrilled to tell you about Digipod, a print on demand company that truly understands what authors need to make make that happen. Here's what I love about Digipod. They don't just print your books and send you on your way. Their team holds your hand throughout the entire process with incredible customer service. They deliver professional grade printing quality, consistently beat their competitors turnaround times and they can handle rush orders. They simplify the whole printing process and make it incredibly easy. To achieve your vision for your books. Head over to Digipod Zibby this that's-I G-G-Y-P o d.com Zybee Set up a free 15 minute printing consultation and get 10% off your first print order. You'll talk with their experts who will walk you through exactly how to set up your print job and answer all your questions. And by the way, I've seen the books and they are amazing looking. If you've been thinking about printing your book, this is the support you want. Again, that's digipod.com zibby for your free consultation. Hi, this is Zibby Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know, get insider insights and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com and follow me on Instagram. Iby Owens Alana Kirshan is the author of Children of the A Memoir of Reading Together. Alana is also the author of if all the Seas Were Ink, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and of course, the memoir Children of the Book. She is the book's editor of Lilith Magazine and works as a teacher and translator in Jerusalem, where she lives with her husband and family. Welcome. Ilana, thank you so much for coming on Totally Booked with Zivi to talk about Children of the A Memoir of Reading Together. Congratulations.
- [04:02]
Ilana Kurshan
Thank you.
- [04:03]
Zibby Owens
This was such a beautiful book. Oh my gosh. I got to relive all of my reading with my own kids, with my mom. I mean, it was just so nice. Why don't you tell listeners a little bit about the inspiration for the for the book.
- [04:16]
Ilana Kurshan
So this book I wrote, it's a memoir. It's a memoir about the closeness forged when family life unfolds against the backdrop of reading together. And I in each part of the book, I explore the connections between the various books I've read with my children over time and the Torah, the five books of Moses, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which is the book that Jews never really stop reading. Because part of what inspired me was that in traditional Jewish practice, we read from the Torah every week in synagogue over the course, starting in the fall, shortly after the start of the Jewish New Year with the book of Genesis, and then proceeding weekly through the entire Bible, the entire five books of Moses, until we come to the book of Deuteronomy the following fall and start over again. So I've been engaging in this practice for my entire life. I read from the Torah, I chant from the Torah every week, regularly in synagogue. And I write in my book, my memoir, about how all the books I've read with my children over time, everything from Goodnight Moon and the Very Hungry Caterpillar to Charlotte's Web, Little Women, how all these books really unfold in the context of the ancient story of the Bible. And this really emerged from discovering that as a parent, as a mother, though most of the books I was reading fell into two categories. One were the children's books that my kids always wanted me to keep reading over and over again. And I read aloud a lot to my children. This was in part because I'm raising them in Israel. I am American born. And it was very important for me to impart to my children the richness of the English language literary culture that I grew up with. So I really have from birth, and truly, even in utero, I'm always been reading out loud, always been reading out loud to my children. But also because I am constantly reading from the Torah and chanting from the Torah, I started to hear those books in conversation with one another. And so that was how the book, the idea for the book came to me. I would say the arc of the book is really, as I describe it, from paradise to the Promised Land. Paradise being the very first books we read to our children when they're born. And then the Promised Land being that moment when our kids go off on their own and read books independently of us, books that we may never enter ourselves. Which made me think of Moses atop the mountain, watching as the children of Israel enter new lands and have new experiences that Moses will not have. So I guess you could say the book is. It's about parenthood as a sacred journey, a journey that maps out onto the Bible's narrative. And it's also an exploration of how we learn to read our kids by reading with them.
- [07:11]
Zibby Owens
That was a really beautiful insight you had in the story, too, is how reading helps you read your kids and how each one of them is so different from each other. And this is a way you all get to know more about each other by the things that you read and the insights and how you change as a reader, too, from when you read it the first time to when you're a grown up.
- [07:32]
Ilana Kurshan
Yes. Part of what I've discovered is so many books that I thought of in a certain way, from the way I remember them from my childhood, read so differently when I reread them as a parent and suddenly focused on the experience of the parent. So, you know, I was recently rereading Reading with my children, A Wrinkle in Time, which I always thought of as a. Probably my favorite book growing up. And I always thought of it as a story about a girl in search of her missing father and traveling through space time to find him and discovering all the power of love as a source of connection. But I read it this time, and I mean, so my husband has been on a sabbatical all year, actually, in the Far east, so very far from home. And I read this story about this mother who's trying to hold her family together, not knowing where her husband is. And it was just a totally different story from the mother' perspective. And so I've had that experience also. Discovering how I'm so much older than most of the parents in the books I'm reading to my children has also just been. That's. That's been an interesting experience in its own right. But yeah, just the way books read so differently with every encounter with them. And I think that's such a testament to rich literature, rich literature and, and, and, and beautifully and deeply written books or books that every time you come to them, you. You discover something different. And it's never the same book with each rereading. And I would even say, I think that's true. So I have five children, and I've read the same books aloud with each of them. I'm actually now reading just tonight and reading Charlotte's Web with my youngest, who is five and a half. And I've now read this book five times with each of my children. And I will say that every time children notice something different and you learn about your child through what their insights are. And it's sort of a controlled experiment because it's the same book and yet it doesn't read the same way each time. So that's part of, that's part of what's made for such a rich experience, sharing books with my kids.
- [09:37]
Zibby Owens
Wow. Well, you also show in the book just how many places and how often you yourself are reading. I mean, I felt like I read a lot, but you are just constantly reading books on the windowsill, books on the stove, books everywhere. Just pick it up all the time. How do you fit reading in? And where are some of the places that maybe people should be reading?
- [10:00]
Ilana Kurshan
Well, so I'll say that traditionally, when Jews study sacred texts, there's something we use. It's called a stender, like a stand that you put big heavy tomes on. And I had a stand like this and I used to use it to study sacred books. But when I had less time to do that, when my kids were really young, I repurposed that stender and I put it on our kitchen table and we would just support the books we'd read through meals. I read aloud to my kids. I never ate while my kids were eating. That was impossible. It was like running a three ring circus to feed them. But I read out loud at every meal as a way of really, I think of reading out loud as a parenting strategy. Like it's just a way of making sure that everything's not going to fall apart and everyone's attention is focused on something that's not, you know, how much food is in someone else's plate, who got more dessert, who threw the spaghetti or, you know, all the things that kids like to do it at mealtimes to avoid actually eating. My kids focus best when I'm reading time. We have a lot of food related, food related, favorite books. Probably chief among them is the Seven Silly Eaters by Marianne Hoberman. Because I always call my kids the Silly Eaters. But anyway, yes, so we read a lot at mealtimes. We've just graduated from our stroller. But I always kept big piles, stacks of books under the stroller. And I would vary the books all the time so that you never know when a kid is going to nearly have a meltdown at the park. And you can save the moment by distracting them with a story. There are also certain books that we'd come to sort of after, after a child would have a tantrum. There were certain books that always calm my kids down. So it was really just for me. I found that I could be a better parent when I had books at my disposal. Like waiting for one kid to finish a swimming lesson and the other kid wants to jump in the water. And I'm like, no, no, no. Or when my son was afraid to get his first haircut and I read him the story Ella Kazoo Will Not Brush Her Hair, which is an Australian children's book about a girl who refuses to get a haircut and. Or Dandelion, another haircut book that are, you know, various moptop. There are various books that I just had for certain moments in our books that came up in certain situations. And I just found that having those books available to me really helped me. I remember I once had a friend who told me that the best way to get your kids to be readers Was to always be you, always yourself should be reading around them. And I remember thinking that was like the craziest thing. Like, I was a full time reader before I became a full time mother. And suddenly I discovered that I had signed on for a job that was incompatible with what I love to do most. Like, it was so hard to read well, and I did. I mean, I read aloud to all my children. Whatever I was reading. When I was breastfeeding them, I used to read to them as they were. When they were sleeping, I would read out loud because I always felt so guilty. Just, you know, I always felt guilty not being physically present with my children. So I thought, well, I'll just bring them into the story that I'm in. So I read a lot to my children while they were in their infancy. The first books they heard were not picture books or board books or they were whatever novels I was reading at the time. But when my friend said this to me, that the best way to read with your, you know, to raise your kids as readers is to read all the time, I thought, I can't do that. But I do read to them all the time. And I hope, I hope, I hope that is having an effect on them. I hope, I will say that it has resulted in a common language of literary illusions where I feel like a lot of the connections that I have with my children are allusions to books that we have read together. So I remember I read with my son. Well, I read with all my kids the picture books by James Marshall, the Ms. Nelson books. And my youngest was, I think he was like two or three as we were one summer. We were reading these books over and over. And there's a refrain, and this ominous refrain in the Ms. Nelson is missing book. It's a book about a teacher who dresses up as a cruel substitute teacher to draw her students into line again when they're misbehaving. And every time this mean substitute walks in, they see a shadow on the door and the author. The book reads suddenly, slowly, the knob turns. And at one point there was a moment of, like, I forget, like someone was knocking on the door and we didn't know who it was. In the middle of dinner, and my kids were like, who could it be? Who could be at our door? And my son, who was 2 or 3 at the time, he did not understand this line, but he knew enough to understand. He said, slowly the knob turned and we all burst out laughing because he didn't know what he was saying. But he had this. He knew it was appropriate in the context. Because of this. Because of the books we're reading or. I remember one time I was taking my kids to. To the dentist, and we had read over and over again this book, a William Stig book, Dr. De Soto, about a fox who comes to a mouse dentist, and the mouse has to find a way of outwitting the fox so that he can actually treat the fox without being eaten by the fox. And on the way to the dentist, my son, it was the first time we were just dragging him along, my youngest child, as the older kids were going for their. For their hygienist appointments. And my son said. He said, I'm so excited to see all the animals at the dentist. And I realized that, you know, because the only time he ever heard the word dentist was when we were talking about animal stories. And so we assumed that a dentist office was going to look like a zoo in some way. So, anyway, so. So, yeah, so I think reading in all contexts, for sure, but. But I think also what I'm trying to explore is, or reflect on in the book is how when you have this practice of constantly being immersed in shared text, those texts become. Become a common language and a sort of. They forge intimacy within a family.
- [15:30]
Zibby Owens
I love that. And I try to do that too, like have them catch you reading. That was advice I had early on in my parenting. My older. My kids are now from 18 to 10. But I love, like, reading whatever I'm reading and sharing some great plots with them. Like, I feel like that gets them excited, you know, like, oh, what's that book, mom? As opposed to, like, I'm just doing this thing on my own. Like, every story is one to be shared, right? And you can all get behind a good. A good plot. So.
- [15:57]
Ilana Kurshan
Yes, yes, yes. And sometimes when my kids want to do something with me and I'm in the middle of reading, I'll say to them, no, but I'll read you whatever it is that I'm reading. And they actually really do listen and ask questions. And sometimes it's not always so appropriate for them to be listening to whatever it is I'm reading, but I do find that it's a way to sort of. There's something very intimate about reading the same text at the same time as someone else, Whether you're reading that book to someone or they're looking over your shoulder or whatever it is, where your minds are in the same place and it creates a real sense of closeness. So, yeah, I do that as well.
- [16:29]
Zibby Owens
I think it's also really helpful for putting them to sleep. Especially, like, one of my kids, like, anytime I start reading what I'm reading. Not like, one of his favorite books, I think, because I am relaxed. One of the things I think makes it so hard for bedtime. This is my theory now that my kids don't struggle as much with bedtime because they're older, but we get so anxious about it. Like, get to sleep. Why aren't you getting to sleep? You know, like, go, go. And once I turned bedtime into my own reading time, like, all the stress went away. Like, I don't care if it takes you two hours to fall asleep. I'm gonna sit here and read, and I'm gonna sit on your bed and read, and I'll read to you, and I'll still be calm myself. So it's almost like a parenting habit. Yeah, Win, win.
- [17:10]
Ilana Kurshan
Yes, absolutely. I have a practice with my children where I tell them after a certain hour, I'm not going to. If you want me to stay with you, I will only stay with you if I'm chanting from the Torah, because I always have to practice chanting for reading in synagogues. So I will read out loud to them. And when you do that, you read the same verses over and over because you're trying to master them, to learn them nearly by heart. And so eventually, at some point, my kids get so sick of it, of hearing the same verses. Okay, okay, you can leave now. It's okay. It's okay. But I figure, like, this way, they're learning. They're learning Torah, they're getting to spend time with me, and effectively, at some point, they kicked me out of the room. They'd had enough of me. So. So that, too, I agree that there are many ways to read with one's children. And in so doing, even if you're not reading what they want you to be reading, eventually they do go to sleep or at least let you go. So. Yes.
- [17:59]
Zibby Owens
Oh, my gosh. Well, tell me a little bit about why you moved. I know you decided with your second husband to stay in Israel. You write about this in the book. But how that's been. How do you feel now being in Israel? I know this is. And we don't have to discuss it, but I know you contributed to being Jewish now, and you're very open. And, you know, this is something that we Jewish people in the States and I know all over the place think about. We are so concerned for everyone in Israel. Talk to me a little bit about where you are with. With the current day So I feel.
- [18:34]
Ilana Kurshan
Very, very fortunate to be living in Israel. I would say, I often say that I didn't make aliyah, I didn't move to Israel. I really moved to Jerusalem. I've always lived in Jerusalem. And part of what, part of what attracted me to living here, even though it's a very, very, very intense place to live. The Israeli poet, one of the most famous Israeli poets, Yehuda Amichai, 20th century Israeli poet, says talks about how the air in Jerusalem is saturated with prayers and dreams. Like the air over industrial cities. It's hard to breathe, he says. And there is a real intensity to living in this place, especially right now, of course. But part of what attracted me to living in Jerusalem is that it's really a place where there is such a culture of study, of Jewish learning, where people really commit themselves to engaging seriously with our Jewish textual tradition, which I often think of. You know, we, as Jews, we don't have, like, it's not like we have a royal palace with crown jewels. Like our texts are really our crown jewels in our tradition. So when you walk the streets of Jerusalem, the billboards are plastered with, you know, who's giving, who's teaching what class on the weekly Torah portion and who's going to be speaking on this holiday and where can you go to learn about this aspect of Jewish law? It's really a culture of learning. And for me, that was so eye opening. For me, actually, the first book that I wrote, which I wrote, was about a seven and a half year period in my life when I first came to Israel and I read a page of the Talmud every day. And when you do that, it's. If there's an international program to read through the whole Talmud in seven and a half years, you do it at the rate of a page a day. The Talmud is about 2,700 pages. The Babylonian Talmud, it's a book of law, of literature. It's very, very, very. To learning a page of Talmud, it's not like reading a page of a book. It really requires a lot of intense engagement and studying commentaries. And I was able to do that and I was able to, to engage in so much learning, in part because I was living in a place where that was just really acceptable at the time. I was working at a literary agency. I was selling foreign rights to get books translated into Hebrew from other languages. And I just came into the office late two days a week because I was studying, I was studying and also I began teaching Talmud as well. And it was just very acceptable that it was part of the culture, that this is what people do, that people also take. People take their religious practice very seriously and their commitment to learning very seriously. And so that's really affected how I've come to think of living in this place. Also. I think part of what I love so much about living in Israel, in spite of all the intensity, is really living in a place where Jewish culture is national culture. So the rhythm of our days is the rhythm of the Jewish calendar. The vacation days for everyone in the country are the Jewish holidays. You know, the stores are filled with all the foods for the upcoming holidays. The streets, the traffic in the streets slows down in advance of Shabbat. Like, you really feel like you are living the rhythm of the Jewish calendar. And I think that was also part of what inspired me to engage deeply with Jewish text study, was really feeling like this was a place where that really made sense, where it really made sense to dive deep into our sources because. Because these are the texts that have really shaped the. Really shaped the way we live here.
- [22:07]
Zibby Owens
So.
- [22:08]
Ilana Kurshan
So that was also. That's also very inspiring to me about living in Israel. Yeah.
- [22:12]
Zibby Owens
Oh, that's beautiful. That's really beautiful. I feel like that gives a clearer sense than. Than most descriptions. Today's episode has been sponsored by Quince. As summer winds down, I am all about refreshing my wardrobe with staple pieces for the season ahead. Quince totally nails it with luxe essentials that feel effortless and look polished, perfect for layering and mixing. Their styles are so versatile, I find myself reaching for them again and again. In fact, you'll see me wearing them all over my Instagram feed. Think cashmere and cotton sweaters starting at $40, washable silk tops and classic denim pants. The best part is that everything with quince is half the cost of similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury without the markup. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes you'll see on Instagram. I love my quince skirt. I've been wearing it all summer and it is a fabulous fabric. It's long, the pattern's amazing, and it's just amazing. Plus, the price was great, so I just absolutely adore it. Elevate your fall wardrobe essentials with quince. Go to quince.com zibby for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com zippy to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com zibby.
- [23:45]
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- [24:15]
Sleep Number Advertiser
Why choose a Sleep Number Smart bed.
- [24:16]
Ilana Kurshan
Can I make my site softer?
- [24:18]
Grainger Advertiser
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler?
- [24:21]
Sleep Number Advertiser
Sleep number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side your Sleep number setting. It's the sleep number biggest sale of the year. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day. All Sleep number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep number store or sleepnumber.com today.
- [24:47]
Zibby Owens
How do you live with fear? Do you feel fear or not?
- [24:50]
Ilana Kurshan
You know, I spend so much time trying to allay my children's fear. I will say we have read many, many books in our safe room. Even when I told my children I had a zoom tonight and I told them I was going to be speaking with you and they said do you think a siren might go off in the middle? Are you scared what's going to happen if there's a siren? Because I was telling them about this interview. It's always, always, always in forefront in their minds. And I think that as a parent you just realize that your role is just to be a buffer between your children and their fears. And you always, always, always just have to project an air of calmness and an even keel. And when you do that, I don't know, to some extent you just start to feel it like you just start to feel that your job is just and my children, you know, they get I when we're in, when we, when, when we do have to be in a safe room for whatever reason we tend to focus on, you know, usually either I'll read to my children or they'll they like to pray when we're in that space. I think I wrote about this in the end in the essay for your anthology Zibby that my son, he has this He. My youngest child, always says, like, we can't stop praying even for a second, because if we stop praying, something terrible can happen. And he just has. And for his idea, praying is like belting out his favorite psalms, you know, to tunes that he's learned in school. And we all just sing together. And there's something very calming about that. It's almost. It's almost like reading together and being on the same page. It's like we're all reciting the same words. And somehow that just allays the fears for my children. And when they're calm. I don't know. I don't know. They just. Like, you don't feel fear as a parent when you're so focused on keeping your children calm. You just somehow internalize whatever it is that you're projecting. At least for me, that's how it is for me, that I just. I'm so focused on what I'm projecting to them. And.
- [26:40]
Zibby Owens
So when did you end up writing this whole book? In the midst of everything else.
- [26:44]
Ilana Kurshan
So really, I would say that it all started. The idea for the book first came when I was reading with one of my children. It wasn't my youngest child, but I was reading the book that I think is the first book that all parents read with their children, which is, you know, those. You know, those black and white books where it's just a black image against a white background and a white image against a black background, and there are no words on the page, but it's all these familiar objects from the baby's world. So I was reading one of these black and white books to a newborn. The reason they're black and white is because, of course, newborns can only see black and white. So I was reading this to one of my children when my. I guess, must have been one of my. I think it was my daughter when she was too young yet to be able to. Like, she didn't even know the difference between night and day. She was still, you know, like newborns do, sleeping through the days and up at all hours of the night. And I wonder to myself, wow, when is she gonna learn to distinguish day from night and black from white? Which is. I realized in that moment, of course, that's God's first act in creating the world that is separating light from darkness. And then I realized that each time I read this black and white book with my daughter, it was as if I were drawing back the darkness so that the light might appear distinct and her world might sharpen into focus. I realized that I was essentially creating the world for her by reading to her, which in turn made me think about how the ancient rabbis talk about in the midrash, the early centuries of the common era in the land of Israel. They write about how 2000 years before the world was created, the Torah existed. That is to say, the five books of Moses preceded creation. And they say that the Torah was God's blueprint for creating the world. God looked into the Torah, and based on what was written in the Torah, God learned how to. God knew how to create the world. Just like they say an architect can't build a palace without some sort of blueprint. And I realized when I was reading to my daughter, I was essentially teaching her how to, how to make sense of her world, how to discern the black images from the space that's not black from the white background, and then later on, how to tell good from evil and kindness from cruelty and right from wrong. Which is of course where the Bible goes on to with Adam and Eve and the tree of knowledge of knowing good from evil. And as I had that reflection, I said, wow, that's so interesting how really this is such a simple board book that I'm reading this. I don't even know if you would even call it a book. You know, this, this black and white book that sort of unfolds accordion style, and you put it around the, the edges of the stroller. This, this first book I, we read to children, it really is. It really is like the very beginning of Genesis and the creation of the world. And I wrote about that. And then I began to really, to realize how many of the books that I was reading with my children were unfolding in dialogue with the biblical text. And as I would have these insights, it wasn't that I ever set out to write a book about this. Just as I would have these insights, I would write about those reflections. I'd write about how, you know, oh, so many of those early books you read with kids or, you know, like first words, books that just name objects in the baby's world, which made me think of God speaking the world into being in Genesis. And I kept having these reflections on, you know, I remember a moment when my two of my children were both begging me to read to them at once. My daughter wanted me to read her from some, like, an illustrated children's Bible about the book of Genesis. And my son was trying to get me to read him his favorite book, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, which he and I know by heart. And probably you too, Zimmy. They were both like, insisting that I read to them first. And of course I. One always, inevitably gives into the younger child who's going to have the louder tantrums. So I gave in to my son and I started reading Tim and I realized, like, oh my gosh, this book is not so far afield from the creation of the world. In Genesis, by the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf. Like in the very beginning, everything is just darkness and potentiality. And then one by one, right, the sun, the caterpillar emerges, and then every day the caterpillar eats more. But you have this refrain, but he is still hungry. And the flaps get ever wider as the caterpillar eats more and more. And it reminded me of the explosion of bounty, as in each subsequent day of creation, God creates more and more and more until there's this period of dormancy and the cocoon, which was like the Sabbath, right? And then out comes something beautiful like the world has been created. And I. So I sort of read the very hungry caterpillar against the backdrop of the creation story. And again, that became another short essay. And so the book really emerged. It was never, oh, I'm going to write a book about, about reading with children and about my children and about Torah and how those all speak to each other. But it really sort of unfolded as this three strand braid consisting of, you know, readings of children's books and insights into the biblical narrative and reflections on reading with my children. And each part of the book incorporates at least two of those strands and sort of I tried to weave that braid and that that was how the book emerged. And it was really just writing down reflections as I had them, and then at some point figuring out how to put it all together. The way I've structured the book, I structured the book according to the five books of Moses. With each part, it's a series of very, very short chapters, but those chapters are divided into these five larger sections. So I write about themes in the biblical narrative that are reflected in both specific children's books and in the more broadly construed the experience of reading with children. So that, for example, like Charlotte's Web becomes a story of. Actually, there are a lot of children's books, I think a theme in a lot of children's books is how literacy sets you free and literacy enables you to. You to survive and the miracles wrought by reading and writing. So the miracles, yes. Charlotte writing in her web and the rats in Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh getting freed when they learn how to read. And Matilda being able to free Miss Honey from the evil Mrs. Trunchbull, right when she's able to write with her eyes, you know, on the blackboard. And it really made me think of all the signs and wonders in the Exodus story and how the whole journey throughout the book of Exodus is for the sake of being able. The liberation. Why does that liberation? Why does God free the Israelites so that God says explicitly so they can worship God on this mountain where they're going to receive the Torah. So really, the whole purpose of the Exodus story is to be able to receive this book, this narrative, the Torah. So I write about the literacy as a gift and what it means to give that gift to our children. Anyway, that's sort of how I frame the Exodus section. But that's how the book really, that's how the book emerged as a series of shorter pieces that came together into larger reflections on each of the five books of Moses.
- [33:33]
Zibby Owens
Amazing. Well, Ilana, thank you so much, children of the book. A memoir of reading together. What a perfect gift. Such a great thing for parents and children to have as even a reading list. And thank you so much for coming on.
- [33:46]
Ilana Kurshan
Thank you so much for this opportunity.
- [33:48]
Zibby Owens
That's my pleasure. All right, take care. Happy reading.
- [33:51]
Ilana Kurshan
Thank you very much.
- [33:53]
Zibby Owens
Go back to your kids. Bye. Thank you for listening to Totally booked with Siby formerly Moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review. Follow me on Instagram, Instagram, ibyohans and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.
- [34:18]
Ilana Kurshan
This back to school. Hear your teen say something you never thought possible.
- [34:24]
Zibby Owens
Thanks ma.
- [34:25]
Ilana Kurshan
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Zibby Owens
Thanks ma.
- [34:35]
Ilana Kurshan
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- [35:21]
Ilana Kurshan
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- [35:23]
Zibby Owens
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Ilana Kurshan
No shave cream needed.
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- [35:45]
Ilana Kurshan
Ready?
- [35:45]
Zibby Owens
Your skin looks amazing.
- [35:47]
Ilana Kurshan
So smooth and beach ready. Let's go.