Examines how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful, and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction. "A miraculous alchemy occurs when one person reads to another, transforming the simple stuff of a book, a voice, and a bit of time into complex and powerful fuel for the heart, brain, and imagination. Grounded in the latest neuroscience and behavioral research, and drawing widely...

A series of vignettes describes how the author's father challenged himself to read aloud to her for one hundred consecutive nights when she was in fourth grade and how they decided to continue "the streak" until the day she left for college.