Books are a gateway to conversations

If you really want to get to know your kids, read with them. Allow for pauses. Ask questions. Let them interrupt. Take your time. Some books provide great jumping-off places for discussions about anything and everything. I was just leafing through What We’ll Build, the new picture book by Oliver Jeffers, and each page filled me with either hope or a quirky truth that touched my heart. I found myself longing to know what my son or daughter would have said about a two-page spread depicting a row of adult-looking tools. There’s a power drill, a hand saw, a wrench, and then tucked just to the right of a paintbrush is a small, pale green crayon. Like the rest of the book, the picture is a metaphor for this journey of father and daughter building their family foundation…together.