Twila Liggett

It was the summer after my father died. My mom was pretty firm that she didn’t want us sitting around and watching TV all summer, though my older sister and I, at least, were likely to read and watch TV at the same time. Still, we had housework and yardwork expected of us, and we couldn’t come inside until the yardwork was done except for things like, you know, going to the bathroom. But in July, we were allowed half an hour of TV no matter what—because that July was the debut of a new educational show that Mom had heard about, and if her kids didn’t necessarily need to be encouraged to read, well, she was still concerned about the statistical fact that kids’ reading ability slips over the summer. So there it was.

Twila Liggett was a teacher first. Then she was a reading coordinator for the state of Nebraska. Then she got involved with public television in Nebraska, which was looking to develop a show that didn’t teach kids how to read but taught kids how to love reading. This was also important but no one really looks at that as much. So she developed an idea for a show that would show kids that books could be fun and entertaining. And that reading wasn’t just for rich white kids, while she was at it.

To this day, it’s her only credit other than an appearance as herself in Butterfly in the Sky, the documentary about the series. (And now I’ve just gotten the theme song stuck in your head even though I haven’t actually mentioned the name of the show yet.) She didn’t know television, but she knew kids and she knew books. She knew that there are all kinds of ways to get kids to read, and one of them is getting kids to realize that there are books about everything. So she initially struggled to get publishers to allow their books on the show—until the publishers realized that labeling a book “a Reading Rainbow book” would increase sales dramatically.

I know that having watched that initial airing that summer dates me, but I’ve never been afraid of being openly the age I am around here. But I can confirm that it was a new concept. Electric Company taught kids to read, and Sesame Street, but from that point on, you were on your own. And most of my classmates were firm that they hated reading. The fact that I always had a book in my backpack was the least cool thing about me, and I was not a cool kid growing up. I won’t say Liggett made reading cool, but she made it less uncool.

And then the show was canceled, because the money went back to just teaching kids how to read. The money people didn’t understand why it matters if kids love reading or not. It’s just not important. I doubt most of them don’t love reading, and they didn’t get the pure joy of seeing a beloved book in Levar Burton’s hands, or presented by one of the real kids who really sat there and told us about how much they loved the books, too. I think it explains a lot about the people in charge—if you don’t love Reading Rainbow, I’m not sure I trust you.