About The Reading Lantern
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. Imagine my delight when 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.
Like many parents, I know how hard it is to make space for slower, more intentional reading in a busy world. There are thousands of children’s books to choose from, never quite enough time in the day, and a real desire to make the stories we share genuinely memorable.
The Reading Lantern brings together carefully selected classic literature with thoughtful discussion questions, vocabulary exploration, and creative activities — so families spend less time planning and more time enjoying stories together.
The stories we read together are becoming part of our family’s history: the voices we use for the characters we love, the conversations a book starts that have nothing to do with the book itself, and the ideas my children will carry with them for years after the story ends. That’s what every guide in this shop is built to protect.
— Elizabeth McPherson, The Reading Lantern
More than a book list
Every guide from The Reading Lantern is built around one idea: reading aloud isn’t about getting through more books. It’s about savouring the ones you choose — reading slowly enough to remember them, and knowing that you experienced them together.
Each guide gives you:
- Discussion prompts that go somewhere — not generic comprehension questions, but ones built to move from what happened to what do you think, so conversation actually unfolds instead of stalling after one answer.
- Activities that bring stories to life, so the story turns into something a child can make, do, or hold onto — not just something they listened to.
- A “moment we shared” prompt in every guide — a space to capture this particular reading, with this child, on this night. It’s the page families tell us they come back to.
Right now, that includes read-aloud collections for classic children’s literature including Beatrix Potter, Aesop’s Fables, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, fairy tales, mythology, and more — with many more beloved stories to come.
Our flagship is the 52-week read-aloud guide: a year’s worth of titles to share as a family, each one paired with a thematically related poem for a gentle introduction to the classics of children’s poetry, and each carrying the same discussion questions, activities, and “moment we shared” prompt found in every guide.
For families who want more from reading together
The Reading Lantern is for families who want to bring more intentional reading into their home — whether you’re starting a read-aloud tradition for the first time, working through the classics, or just looking for better questions to ask after the last page.
