Short Stories for Seniors to Read Aloud

You can read any story in this book out loud in about four minutes.

That is the whole design. Four minutes is roughly as long as someone will

listen without losing the thread, and short enough that you can read one, talk

for a while, and read another.

Forty stories, set in ordinary American life in the 1950s and 60s. A book of

Green Stamps saved for a toaster. A party line where the neighbor listened to

every call. The milkman's horse that knew the route better than the milkman.

The night the television arrived and nineteen people came over to look at it.

Sheets frozen stiff on the line in January. A first car bought for seventy

five dollars with a hole in the floor.

THREE QUESTIONS AFTER EVERY STORY

Each story is followed by its own page headed Something to Talk About, with

three questions on it and nothing else. Not a comprehension test. There are no

right answers and nobody has to say anything.

They are there for the moment when the story ends and neither of you knows

what to say next.

BUILT TO BE READ OUT LOUD

* SET IN 16 POINT TYPE, on cream paper, generously spaced. Most large print

books never tell you the size. This one does, on the cover and inside, so you

are not guessing.

* The questions sit on their own page with the story number and title at the

top, so you can hold the book open at them while the room talks.

* EVERY PAGE IS NUMBERED, front to back, and the page numbers in the contents

are the real ones. You can stop mid story and find your way back.

* Nothing here is frightening, nothing is political, and nothing requires

anyone to remember anything correctly.

WHO IT IS FOR

Sons and daughters visiting a parent. Grandchildren. Husbands and wives.

Care home activity coordinators, memory care staff, speech therapists, and

anyone who runs a group and needs something that works for a whole room.

There is a short note at the front on reading aloud, and a second note for

anyone reading to a group rather than to one person.

Read them in any order. Nothing follows on from anything else.