Second Lady Usha Vance has launched a new effort to promote childhood literacy. Her move, a new podcast called “Storytime with the Second Lady,” aims to boost literacy rates. The first three episodes can be found on Spotify and YouTube and feature the books, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” read by Vance; “Cars,” read by Danica Patrick; and “Playground Lessons,” read by author Brent Poppen.
“Reading for pleasure at home builds stronger literacy and classroom skills and opens the door to a world of opportunity for children,” Vance announced. “I’m excited to invite special guests to share great stories, spread their love of reading, and help reverse the decline of childhood literacy rates in our country.”
Discussing her podcast in an interview with NBC News, Vance said, “It’s a podcast that really is just for children. The notion is we will have someone come in — a special reader, we’re calling them — read a fun book, have a very short little conversation about things related to the book, maybe about their career, if they have some sort of interesting background. And then invite children to pick up books on their own. It’s sort of just an advertisement for reading.”
Inspiration for the podcast stems from teaching her own children to read. “I’ve taught all of them to read now. Our 4-year-old is just at the end of the early process,” she said, calling the process the “most amazing thing.”
Discussing declining literacy rates, Vance said, “If I was going to do anything, this would be the thing to focus on at this moment in time,” and noted that she hopes the podcast will encourage parents to read to their children.
Last year, Vance launched a summer reading challenge for K-8 students.
