Celebs Read to Your Kids (and You) on This YouTube Channel
We’re always grateful for the internet, but now that we’re quarantined at home, we’re learning about new free online resources all the time. There are aquarium and zoo livestreams, a Broadway musical streaming service, virtual tours of national parks, and even virtual amusement park rides. Lower-tech but no less cool: There’s also a website and YouTube channel devoted to celebrities reading children’s books.
Storyline Online is a program of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Readers so far include Betty White, Chris Pine, Kristen Bell, Tia & Tamera Mowry, Rami Malek, Allison Janney, and Oprah herself.
Each video alternates from the storyteller reading out loud in a cozy environment to close-up, modestly animated pages of the book.
Kids will love it, but so will any adults who grew up watching Reading Rainbow on PBS. (Come to think of it, LeVar Burton was probably the last famous person who read a book out loud to us.)
You can browse videos easily on Storyline Online’s YouTube channel (so you can jump straight to Amanda Bynes or David Harbour). On the website, you’ll find even more videos, plus supplemental activity guides for both parents and teachers.