Reading skills begin long before children enter school. Children whose parents have books in the home and read to them have a distinct advantage in school and in life. They tend to do better in school, achieve a higher level of education, graduate from high school and go on to become happy and productive citizens. I can remember being read to as a child; I count it among my fondest memories. My Mom, a speech-and-drama major turned 50s housewife, embellished everything she read with thrilling voices and gestures that kept me transfixed. I can still remember her affecting a clipped, high-pitched British accent when she read “The King’s Breakfast” from When We Were Very Young, by A.A. Milne: “The King asked the Queen, and the Queen asked the Dairymaid, ‘Could-we-...