Read & Ride

Published January 31, 2024 at 11:47 AM MST

This time on The Children’s Hour, we meet Ms. Caitlin Gooch from Saddle Up And Read, an organization that motivates kids to read with horses. Evan Daitz reviews My Life In The Fish Tank, and Maya Falcon gives us her review of PANDEMIC 2020: A 9 Year Old’s Perspective by Prisha Hedau. The kids in the Extinction Diaries teach us about why some zebras are being born with bizarre stripe patterns, and what that means. We’ve got great music on this show, too. Learn with us!

When kids are reluctant readers, providing opportunities to read without judgement or ridicule can unlock literacy. Our guest, Ms. Caitlin Gooch from Saddle Up And Read is giving kids just such opportunities by providing the most patient listeners of all for kids: horses. It turns out that for some children, the ability to read to horses is the key to motivating them to not only learn to read, but to become readers.

Speaking of readers, our Kids Crew member Evan Daitz reviews My Life In The Fish Tank. Evan explains what the book is about, who is the target reader, and whether it is something he would recommend. Then, another reader on our Kids Crew, Maya Falcon gives us her review of PANDEMIC 2020: A 9 Year Old’s Perspective by Prisha Hedau. This is good timing since Covid-19 has never really left us, and the United States recently found ourselves in the second largest wave of infection since the start of the pandemic.

Then, we go to the Extinction Diaries out of Redding and Red Bluff, California at KFOI. We hear about how some zebras are being born with bizarre stripe patterns, and what that has to do with their well-being.

Mixed with great music, this week on The Children’s Hour we motivate listeners of all ages to grab a book and get reading.

This episode of The Children’s Hour was originally broadcast in 2021, and was produced by Executive Producer, Katie Stone, with help from Senior Producer Christina Stella. Evan Daitz and Maya Falcón contributed to this episode. We had transcription support from Alexander Jacobson.