The Holy Work of Reading Together

Written by Stephanie Quesnelle

Tucked away in the middle of Magnifica Humanitas is a paragraph that encompasses what I’ve discovered in Well-Read Mom. Pope Leo XIV said, “Reading stories to a child…simple gestures often rooted in family life… They teach us to value care at a societal level and train us to recognize others as persons worthy of attention”(MH 114). The books we encounter form us with an understanding of who we are as children of God, but also help us encounter others who deserve that same respect. Reading stories to our children helps them develop skills of empathy. In Well-Read Mom, families are encouraged to dive into new books and experience them together each month with the direction of the Reading Companion.

Our family has integrated this practice monthly. We borrow the picture books from the library and read them out loud. My first-grader experiences books she wouldn’t normally choose. It’s transformed reading time from consuming literature to engaging with each other and the bigger concepts books help us think about. It’s been interesting to watch my kids experience new genres and ideas.

During the Year of the Teacher, I found that reading with my kids taught me even more than reading with my friends did. I saw how kids view the world in new and unique ways. We learned about new cultures together with All-of-a-Kind Family, a fun read because our nanny is a Jewish convert to Catholicism. We had really interesting conversations about the feast of Purim, celebrating Queen Esther, and what it means to eat kosher. Our nanny helped me describe some of the rituals that go into both of those religious practices. My first grader was excited to learn about some of the holidays and customs mentioned and she saw how a fictional book gave her skills to engage in conversation with someone.

This is the societal value that Pope Leo is talking about.  Reading opened new doors for my family this year to encounter how other people live and learn. It helped show my kids – and me – that even those who live differently, whether in a one room schoolhouse like Betsy or running through the streets of New York City like the sisters in All-of-a-Kind Family, are worthy and deserve respect.

Not only did reading this year build empathy, we learned resilience and fortitude. The older style of writing and English in Understood Betsy was really challenging for my daughter.  She came down crying one night that she read the first page five times and still didn’t understand what it meant. This opened an opportunity for us to read together, something she doesn’t really enjoy much anymore, and discuss each chapter more in depth. When we finished the book together, she was full of pride and still mentions how she finished a hard book.

Later that year, when I was reading This is Happiness, I’ll admit, I complained that I didn’t like it quite a bit. The plot was slow and the characters weren’t my favorite, but she looked at me and told me I could do it. Over the year, she’s learned that reading hard books can be good.  She’ll ask me questions about the plot, but also about what I learned.  And that’s because we’ve done hard things together.

So if you’ve never picked up a book out of the “Family Supplement” in your Well-Read Mom Reading Companion, I encourage you to try one this summer. Read together and encounter someone or something new.  Pope Leo XIV sees you doing it.  He knows this work of “martyrs of every day life” (MH 125) is critically important to building a world where all life is respected.

About Stephanie Quesnelle

Stephanie Quesnelle is a senior research analyst at Data Driven Detroit. Her primary focus is data literacy, translating complicated data into accessible resources for community organizations. A mother of five, Quesnelle is also the author of the forthcoming children’s book Created Not Coded: A Catholic Family’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence.

About Well-Read Mom

In Well-Read Mom, women read more and read well. Our hope is to deepen the awareness of meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life, elevate the cultural conversation, and revitalize reading literature from books. If you would like to have us help you select worthy reading material, we invite you to join and read along with us. We are better together! For information on how to start or join a Well-Read Mom group visit our website wellreadmom.com