Andrea seems to be far less responsive to her child than other parents in the book reading scenario. In reading one of her daughter's favourite books to her, Mini Mysteries and Mini Mouse, Andrea stays focused on the book, only once lifting her eyes from the page and looking at her daughter. In her interaction, she follows the text, and does not stop to answer the questions posed by her daughter nor expand upon the text. She redirects her daughter to the story when her eye gaze drifts, but does not engage her in book reading activities such as asking questions about the story, having her predict what might happen, talking about the characters outside of the textual wording, or relating the story to personal knowledge or life events. She only focuses on the print. Andrea does not pay much attention to the phrasing of the text and her pacing is rapid. She uses only slight variety in intonation with her voice sounding relatively monotone. With very little dramatic effect and the lack of interaction through related book reading activities, the reading seems rather boring. The child's squirming behaviour reveals that she gets restless with her mother's presentation style even though this is a well-liked book.

Andrea does not look upon the home, and more specifically the bedroom, as a potential social context and important venue for exposing her children to literacy, she views the bedtime stories merely for practical purposes, such as a means to help them settle down. She has some reservations about whether this is an appropriate reason to provide a story to her children, "Sometimes when they are a little bit wound up when they go to bed…I probably shouldn't do this…I lie down there and I tell them a story…or I read them a book."

The parents reveal an awareness of their past literacy experiences and growing up, but frequently fail to see the effect of their early lives on subsequent literacy activities in their own homes. For example, Andrea is also able to draw on her past experience of having been read to as a child and can recite such classic stories as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood from memory. Jill speaks about having stories read to her at bedtime, and she does the same with her children, but she has no recollection of ever having any fairy tales read or told to her and is unfamiliar with these.