ReadingLantern

I’m Elizabeth, creator of The Reading Lantern. I'm a librarian, an avid reader, and a lifelong admirer of classic children's literature. I created The Reading Lantern after closing yet another new-release chapter book partway through our bedtime read-aloud — flat characters, predictable plots, and very little that stayed with us once the book was shut.

The next night, I picked up Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book and read one of his classic fairy tales to my two children instead. They loved it as much as I did — the way it wasn't predictable, didn't always end happily, and gave them tiny glimpses of what life used to be like.

We haven't stopped since.

My children still enjoy discovering new releases on their own, but our shared reading time has become a place for classic stories — fairy tales, mythology, and novels that have been treasured across generations. From Tom Sawyer to Charlotte's Web to Pippi Longstocking. Modern classics like Roald Dahl and Kate DiCamillo, and back to Roald Dahl again.

And it's working: they look forward to reading together as a family, they bring the books into conversations that have nothing to do with reading, and they carry what they've discovered into their schoolwork — and into their expanding view of the world.

Reading together was becoming one of the most treasured parts of our family life, but I often wished for resources that helped us slow down and notice more—the questions worth asking, the words worth exploring, and simple ways to keep the stories alive after we closed the book.

So I started creating them myself.

Every guide has been used in my own home before it's shared with yours. I hope they help your family discover stories worth returning to, conversations worth having, and the quiet joy of reading together—one book at a time.