Jim Trelease

James Joseph Trelease (March 23, 1941 – July 28, 2022) was an American educator and author who stressed reading aloud to children to instill a love of literature.

Jim Trelease was born on March 23 in Orange, New Jersey, to George Edward and Jane (Conlan) Trelease, a Cornish American family.

In 1945, his family moved to Union, New Jersey, where he attended St. Michael Parish School.

In 1952, his family moved to North Plainfield, New Jersey.

Here, he attended Stoney Brook Junior High and North Plainfield High School.

Three years later, he moved again to Springfield, Massachusetts, and attended Cathedral High School.

He graduated in 1959.

From 1959 to 1963, Trelease was enrolled in the University of Massachusetts, where he received a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

In 1963, he married Susan Kelleher and had two children: Elizabeth Jane and James Joseph, Jr. Trelease.

He served in United States Army Intelligence from 1964 to 1966 as a First Lieutenant.

Trelease lectured to school groups and educational gatherings across the nation from 1979 until 2008 (often in conjunction with purveyors of books for young people) about the fundamental importance of youthful reading to the entire process of education.

Trelease helped put an end to a controversy over Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game.

So, Trelease was inspired to write and self-publish the first edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook in 1979.

The first Penguin edition of The Read-Aloud Handbook led to six additional U.S. editions as well as British, Australian, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese versions.

Nearly two million copies of the Handbook have been sold worldwide.

Moreover, it was the inspiration for PBS's Storytime series.

It is also used as a text for future teachers, and is the basis for more than 3,000 elementary and secondary schools adopting sustained silent reading as a regular part of the academic day.

The Handbook was a pivotal force between 1979 and 2008 for read-aloud movements in the United States and abroad.

Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Nebraska, Hawaii, and one European country (Poland) launched state- and country-wide campaigns based on Trelease's work and seminars.

In 1990, a reel-to-reel tape of Bill Campbell's entire fourth quarter call surfaced.

He had recorded a 3 a.m. re-broadcast of the fourth quarter of the game.

The NBA merged the reel-to-reel with the dictaphone tape, which also included a short postgame show.

During his time working for the Springfield Daily News, now the Springfield Republican, Trelease began weekly volunteer visits to community classrooms to talk to children about journalism and art as possible careers.

Trelease noticed that many of the students in these classrooms did not read much for pleasure, whereas those who did most often came from classrooms where teachers read aloud daily and incorporated Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) into the daily class routine.

Trelease began to think that there may be a connection between reading to a child and its desire to read.

It turned out that there was in fact a correlation.

However, the information and research was published in education journals or written in academic language that exceeded the understanding of the average parent or teacher.

Poland launched its national campaign "All of Poland Reads to Kids" in 2001.

By 2007, polls showed that over 85% of Polish people knew of the reading campaign, and 37% of parents of preschoolers reported that they were reading daily to their children.