Two sisters have been reading bedtime stories every night on Facebook Live to share their love of books with children that might not be as fortunate.
Every week, 13-year-old Zaria Hathorn and her eight-year-old sister Hailey Willard visit the local library to pick out a selection of children's books to read on social media. Then the girls take turns recording their Facebook Live readings every night of the workweek.
The Delaware girls have been sharing their bedtime stories on their Zaria x Hailey Facebook page since March 2019—and they had garnered more than 10,000 fans at the time of reporting.
Since some children do not have access to books and parents may not have time to read with them at night, Zaria and Hailey have been sharing their stories with more than 100 young listeners every night.
Watch the news coverage below:
The reading session is a shared activity
The sisters' project gives a familiar book a new audience through their voices and presentation. Notice how a reading's pace differs from silently turning pages. This article describes the initiative at the time of reporting; any current schedule and permissions to broadcast particular books should come from the organizers and rights holders.
A familiar voice can make another reading worthwhile
The sisters’ alternating readings give the project a personal rhythm. A listener can return for the storytellers as well as the next book. Pauses, expressions and the chance to discuss a character can make a shared reading engaging without requiring an elaborate production; the reported audience figures describe the initiative as it was in 2019.
Related articles
How the readings worked
The sisters live in Dover, Delaware. Their mother, Victoria Willard, read them bedtime stories when they were little, and the idea for the broadcasts came to them one night while they were chatting; she agreed after they accepted some rules about using the internet. In 2019 they went live from their reading nook at 8.30 p.m. Eastern time from Monday to Friday, and on Saturdays Zaria posted reviews of chapter books for older children. Their streams grew from about 50 views a night to between 3,000 and 12,000, with viewers from as far away as Georgia and California. They chose books with diverse characters, and said they wanted every child to have a bedtime story and to help raise literacy rates.
Sources: WMDT 47abc, 31 July 2019: Dover sisters want every kid to have a bedtime story Scary Mommy, 22 July 2019 (updated 16 September 2019): Sisters read bedtime stories on Facebook Live
COMMENTS