A nonprofit organization is partnering with a renowned children’s book author to inspire military kids to read.
United Through Reading set out to make reading with children easier for military caregivers – no matter where they are in the world. The organization’s Book for the Military Child program selects one book each year for the entire military community to read – with more than 10,000 copies distributed to communities and an e-book in their online app.
This year’s selection is “Ty’s Travels: All Aboard” by acclaimed children’s author Kelly Starling Lyons. An “I Can Read” book that is part of Lyons’ Geisel Honor-winning “Ty’s Travels” series, “Ty’s Travels: All Aboard” follows Ty as he asks each member of his busy family to play with him – and then uses his own imagination to transform a simple cardboard box into an adventure.
“He comes up with the idea to turn [the box] into a train ride,” said Lyons in an interview. “And one by one, his family joins in.”
The heartwarming tale of family connection and joyful imagery resonated with United Through Reading, who also recognized that the inventive use of cardboard boxes in Lyons’ tale is a familiar fact of life for military children, with their frequent family moves.
“Both my parents deployed frequently over the course of my childhood,” said Samantha Hagan Lingad, vice president of programs for United Through Reading, whose dad and mom both served in the Navy. “Having my dad read to us was a big daily event at our house. When he wasn’t there, we definitely missed that and we missed him.”
The organization provides resources to make reading together possible at any age, even when family is far away, with resources that any loved one – grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors – can share to connect with the children in their lives through reading. Lingad shared that when one military father had to miss his daughter’s high school graduation, he recorded Dr. Seuss’ “Oh The Places You’ll Go” for his teen. The package arrived on an afternoon she spent with her friends, and the teens watched the recording “with tears streaming down all of their faces because he took the time to share this moment of connection and let her know that even though he was far away, he was with her,” Lingad said.
Author Lyons comes from a long military legacy herself. Her father served in the Air Force when she was a small child, and both her grandfathers served, one in the Air Force and one in the Army. In doing family research, one of her cousins discovered that several of their ancestors served in the United States Colored Troops, which made up 10% of the Union Army during the Civil War, a connection she shares in another of her books, “Hope’s Gift.”
When Lyons was a young girl, there were very few mainstream books about Black girls and women, and one of the reasons she writes is to add her voice to the movement to ensure all kids see themselves as stars of stories.
“I hope that military children see themselves in Ty,” Lyons said of “Ty’s Travels: All Aboard.” “I hope they know … we appreciate the service and sacrifice of their military parents and the whole family.”
Go to United Through Reading’s website for more information on the 2024 Book for the Military Child, and visit Kelly Starling Lyons to read more in her “Ty’s Travels” series.
