By blending reading aloud, in particular "performance reading," with follow-up discussion, related activities, and plenty of wordplay, parents can prepare their children to think, communicate, and succeed in the adult world. Performance reading helps parents learn to read wordless books to relate to infants/toddlers; explore sounds of words to foster a love of words and wordplay; interact with pictures to develop the reading readiness skills for success in school; discuss characters' decisions and predicaments to promote decision-making skills; use character voices to create excitement and improve listening skills; and play word games to turn travel time into quality family time. After an introduction, chapters in the book are: Starting with the Right Attitude; Getting Comfortable with Your Voice; Breathing from Your Diaphragm; Varying Your Pitch; Slowing Down; Using Pauses Effectively; Speaking Clearly; Telling the Story with Your Face; Becoming Dramatically Involved; Using Character Voices; Using Your Falsetto; Prereading and Editing; Setting the Stage; Is That All I Need to Know?; Introducing Wordplay; Similes; Alliteration; Metaphors; The Noisy Alphabet; Nyms; Go Ghoti; Oxymorons; Spoonerisms; Rhythm and Rhyme; Reading Gymnastics for Pre-K and K; Fostering Grade-School Readers; and Dealing With the Competition. An afterword, an index to word games, a 31-item annotated list of children's magazines, and a summary of notes at the end of chapters are included. (RS)