Parent and Teacher Educator, Author, and Speaker
About Me
I am Jean Ciborowski Fahey who has written 2 children’s books. What sets my books apart from others - is that they are hybrid books; that is, stories that attract the little listener while showing parents how to put their children on the path toward reading and school success.
After a long career of testing young children at risk for reading and learning problems at a Harvard Teaching Hospital, I shifted my focus to preventing reading problems. This required parents to appreciate the malleability of their babies’ brains by talking, singing, reading, and touching, beginning with the birth of their child. Faced with the challenge of relaying this information to parents, I wrote a story to delight the little listener while showing parents how to put their young children on the path toward reading success.
Make Time for Reading (birth to 5)
In 2013 I self-published Make Time for Reading: a story guide for parents with babies and young children (illustrator Peter J. Thornton; book designer, Elizabeth diPalmer). I used the story guide as a teaching tool in my signature parent/teacher education class, “The Journey Toward Literacy Begins at Birth.”
In 2016, I won the Toyota Teacher of the Year Award and was able to make the book available in bilingual Spanish and Portuguese.
Image Creator: Nancy Lane
Copyright: Nancy Lane/The Boston Herald
I’ll Build You a Bookcase (birth to 3)
In 2019, I won an international children’s book manuscript I’ll Build You a Bookcase sponsored by the William Penn Foundation and OpenIdeo. According to Elliot Weinbaum, Program Director at William Penn Foundation
“Talking and reading with children is how we lay the groundwork for strong readers in the future, even when it seems like they are too young to understand. This book seeks to engage children with its emotionally resonant writing and storyline, while giving ideas to adults about how to support early language development. We are eager to share I’ll Build You a Bookcase with Philadelphia families, and we hope to see this book reach families around the country.”
I’ll Build You a Bookcase is available in the bilingual editions of Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Vietnamese.
Image Copyright © READING PROMISE
By 2021, I’ll Build You a Bookcase had been purchased and then donated to more than 30,000 low-income families with young children by William Penn, Reach Out and Read, Too Small to Fail and many other early childhood non-profit organizations. I’ll Build You a Bookcase had been made available in the bilingual editions Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic and Vietnamese.
