Curiously, Larrick warned parents that the fruits of their literacy work in the home might prove anti-climatic once their child started school and met with the bland texts of “Oh, look, Tommy, look, oh, oh” (p. 88). But they could be consoled by the reassurance that as bland as the text was in comparison to all the vocabulary development done at home, “at least he is really reading for himself” (p. 89). Here Larrick was navigating the contradictory nature of her advice. Engage in rich domestic literacy practices and expose a child to wonderful books, so that he can arrive at school ready to read mind numbing, meaningless texts. Indeed, mounting critique of the drab texts that characterized children’s literature in schools was one factor in the eventual demise of the “reading readiness” paradigm. Theodore Geisel, most commonly known as “Dr. Seuss”, weighed in on literacy advice to parents, professing horror at the dull and stale graded readers that he said passed for children’s literature in schools. In an interview with Silverman (1960) in Parents’ Magazine, he said that in response to his horror at such literature, he set out to write books that incorporated phonological awareness, repetition, and vocabulary building, but, just as importantly, were fun to read and appealed to parents as well as children. He drew a firm connection between reading aloud to children at home and success in reading at school, highlighting the importance of humour and entertainment in encouraging children to want to read.

In the interview (Silverman, 1960) Geisel suggested that the real problem with children’s reading problems in school was that parents didn’t read enough to them. As an author of popular children’s books, “Dr. Seuss” was deemed well placed to provide literacy advice to parents, even as mothers themselves were asked to defer to expert educators and researchers in matters concerning their children’s reading. Father-celebrities were also recruited to offer reading advice to other fathers. Richard Armour (1967), reflecting on his children’s formative years, advised new fathers to make more time for their children than he had done, and while asserting their role as head of the house, to nevertheless remain flexible and approachable, and to read to their children. He shared that reading to his children every evening was one thing he was proud of, and called for a return to the “old” art of reading aloud. Yet, fathers who couldn’t manage that could always delegate: “Of course some fathers turn the reading aloud over to their wives, or Grandfather or Grandmother. There is a good chance that grandparents go back to that earlier time when reading aloud in the home was a regular thing” (Armour, 1967,
p. 48).