Dawn Ohanian Tringas

Dawn Ohanian Tringas, M.Ed., graduated from The University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a Master of Arts in Education. She completed her thesis on ‘Early Reading Instruction Across Cultures’ in both America and in England. She taught in a classroom for over a decade, and as an educational consultant, aided in the development and launch of integrated literacy programs, worked with publishing houses on educational material, wrote technology-based curriculum, and collaborated with businesses to present research and user friendly material to parents, teachers, and students. Mrs. Tringas resides in Boston with her husband and two book-loving children.

A Note from the Authors

Dawn Ohanian Tringas and Kimberly Zimmer Aulenback

As educators and literacy consultants with a passion for books, we began reading with our own children when they were newborns still in the hospital. Like all new parents, we were exhausted, but we were excited to find our way and - yes!- share books with our infants. It helped that our friends and family brought books when they came to visit, but anyone listening at the hospital door would never have known that we were reading stories with sweet new babies. We asked questions, thought aloud, marveled at the illustrations, and chatted about the story while we were sharing it. We were new to parenting, but we were trained on how to “read like a teacher” and that was what we were doing.

To be honest, it didn’t even occur to us that this might be an anomaly until we visited bookstores and libraries with our children and observed the way other parents read with their young ones; or spoke with parents who were not even reading with their babies because they were “too small”. We realized quickly that while many parents knew that reading was important and should involve more than opening a book, pronouncing the words, and closing the book, few had been taught how to truly unlock the unique power within the pages of a picture book. That was how Bookworm Babies was born.

After years of working in schools, consulting, reading with children, and observing the positive educational effects of interacting with books, conversational book-sharing became second nature as we moved from educators to parents. Our love of reading and the desire to teach our conversational book-sharing strategies to new parents became a passion. In the time we stole from work, to-do lists, time with our family and sleep, we built a website and a social media following, all focused on sharing tips for reading aloud, circulating research, providing book recommendations and answering questions from fellow parents.

As parents and educators, we know that cultivating behaviors of literacy from infancy will ensure that children develop a proficiency for reading that will permeate all aspects of growth, development, and life experience. Our greatest desire is to pass on a love and knowledge of conversational book-sharing to every parent and to help our global community learn how to most effectively read and converse with even the youngest infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

We are glad to be on this journey with you!

Happy reading!

Dawn and Kimberly