How reading books aloud can draw us into intimacies It can be more than merely sociable. It can be deeply seductive, forging intimate as well as community bonds. Art by George Romney / Google Cultural Institute, Public Domain Reading aloud is an activity that we associate with the cosy comfort of children’s bedtime stories. Certainly, children’s classics from The Gruffalo to the Alice books are produced knowing that when they come to be read, the chances are that an older person will be reading them aloud to a younger one. The extensive benefits of reading aloud to children are well documented. Researchers have found that toddlers who are read to become children who are “more likely to enjoy strong relationships, sharper focus, and greater emotional resilience and self-mastery”.