Great Books Summer at Amherst and Stanford College Campus

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Susan Straub

Founder of READ TO ME program

Susan Straub

Susan Straub teaching       Susan Straub with students

Susan visits with students at Amherst in Summer 2011

A sample of what our students had to say after their workshop with Susan Straub:

“Susan Straub was so cool.  She combined two things I love, literature and crafts!”

Susan Straub, MSW in Clinical Social Work from New York University and Child Psychotherapy from Tavisotck Institute of London, is the founder of the twenty-year-old READ TO ME Program which encourages teen parents to read books with their babies.  The program has been featured in O Magazine and has been awarded many honors, including: New Yorker of the Week by New York 1; Champion for Children, Child Care; Reach Out and Read of Greater New York’s Literacy Champion Award; honored by Literacy, Inc.

In summer 2010, Susan Straub did a workshop with the intermediate students at Amherst which demonstrated how every writer begins as a listener, usually through hearing books read aloud by caregivers.  She showed clips from her award-winning film that illustrates how active this process is and how we can “read” books in languages we don’t understand.  The workshop concluded with students creating a flip picture book of their own.

For more information on the READ TO ME Program, please visit: www.readtomeprogram.org/


"I am deeply impressed by many aspects of this program, including the warmth and professionalism of the staff, the rigor and creativity of the curriculum, and the physical beauty of its setting. But what impresses me most, are the students themselves."

Dr. Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"Every summer, all I have to do is mosey on down from my hilltop home overlooking Amherst College, and walk into an ongoing conversation about the Big Stuff. It always feels like an intellectual transfusion."

Dr. Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"I will mark Amherst as my most memorable event of the year, simply because of the smartest and most generous kids I was surrounded with. I wish they could be my students forever..." "

Da Chen, award-winning, best-selling author

"What a terrific curriculum and an enthusiastic group of young people. Made me want to drop everything and sign up."

Barry Eisler, best-selling author

"The students were such an engaged and smart and interesting group. I really enjoyed talking to them but mostly just appreciated being asked such a varied array of questions. It was a lot of fun."

Jacob Lewis, former managing editor of The New Yorker magazine and co-founder of Figment.com

"The Great Books program is a midsummer night's dream- I adored the kids and it all felt so alive and was so much fun! The faculty was warm and embracing. So important to keep literature alive and connect with kids who want to read books! "

Laura Shaine Cunningham Memoirist, novelist, playwright and journalist

"I enjoyed talking to and listening to the your kids. They are an impressive bunch. "

Dr. Richard Reeves Award-winning author, journalist and documentary filmmaker

"I loved my experience with the Great Books Summer Program. The students were brilliant and involved even beyond my expectations, really the ideal young audience for a writer. "

Peter Straub, Award-winning author

"I give a lot of talks to a lot of groups all over the country and world, but I've never had a more engaged, interested and interesting audience than the students at the Great Books Summer Program. They were clearly primed to learn and think. I hope I gave them some useful ideas about writing and the writing life; I know they inspired me. "

Kurt Andersen, Award-winning author, editor and co-creator of Studio 360 radio show

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