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" As passionate readers and former teachers, First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna have a personal stake in helping kids learn to read. Their new book, Read All About It! features Tyrone, whose interest in books is sparked by...well, we won&amp;#039;t spoil it for you. Good Housekeeping&amp;#039;s editor in chief, Rosemary Ellis, sat down with the mother-daughter writing team to find out more about the book, their mutual love of reading, and Jenna&amp;#039;s impending wedding.  Rosemary Ellis: You&amp;#039;ve both been teachers, but in different schools, and in different decades. Mrs. Bush, do you feel kids and their parents are less interested in reading now than they used to be? Laura Bush: Well, a new study from the National Endowment for the Arts found that people are not reading literature like they once did. There&amp;#039;s so much competition for reading: TV shows, Game Boys, and going online.  Jenna Bush: I can say for the kids I taught \u2014 third graders and fifth graders \u2014 that it&amp;#039;s a different age, with technology, computers, video games, and TV. You have to give kids things they&amp;#039;re interested in reading. That&amp;#039;s what teachers do who are engaged in what their students want.  RE: Tell me, how did you both hatch Read All About It!?  JB: Tyrone is based on a boy that my mom used to tell us about. When we were in third and fourth grade, she would tell us stories about herself...you know, because as little kids, you&amp;#039;re fascinated by your parents&amp;#039; lives before they had you.  LB: I told the girls stories about the students that I had as a teacher.  RE: And is that what inspired you, Jenna, to teach?  JB: I&amp;#039;m sure my mom&amp;#039;s interest has sparked mine, but also I just love being in the classroom. Kids are so dynamic; if you&amp;#039;re tired and you walk into a roomful of kids, your energy is brought up to their level.  RE: What were your favorite books, or children&amp;#039;s authors, as a child?  JB: Well, we loved Dr. Seuss, and Good Night, Moon was our favorite book from, you know, 0 to 5.  LB: They loved Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss because their daddy would read it to them, and then they would literally hop on him. [Laughter.]  Next Page: Continue reading our exclusive interview with Laura and Jenna Bush. RE: It&amp;#039;s clear that you both have a deep love of reading. What advice would you give parents who say they&amp;#039;re too busy to read aloud to their kids?  LB: I think about that often. Your children are only 1 or 2 for a short time, and if you are too busy during those two years, then you&amp;#039;ve missed that time in their early childhood when you could have started reading to them, when they already would have started building a vocabulary, even though they might not be speaking very much. That&amp;#039;s what I hope mothers and dads will think about when they think they&amp;#039;re too busy, that you have a very brief time with your children while they&amp;#039;re little.  JB: As a teacher you can see the difference in kids who have parents who were involved. That difference, by the time these kids get to the third grade, is drastic.  LB: It&amp;#039;s a huge advantage to have parents who read to you. And it&amp;#039;s an advantage that lasts a lifetime.  RE: In terms of education, what the Bush administration will probably be best remembered for is No Child Left Behind. In what way do you feel that the program has steered children toward reading?  LB: Well, we know that reading scores are up, and that African-American and Hispanic kids are scoring the highest they&amp;#039;ve ever scored on reading. I think what has happened is that teachers in school districts and state departments of education have focused on how to teach reading.  JB: And how to assess reading.  LB: And that&amp;#039;s why the testing part of it is so important, not the standardized test at the end, but as Jenna says, the kind of assessment that teachers can do every week, in one minute per student.  RE: Switching the subject slightly, I want to say best wishes on your impending marriage, Jenna. Mrs. Bush, if you could give your daughter any intangible wedding gift, what would it be?  LB: Well, I hope her daddy and I have already given her that, and that is both unconditional love and a good example in a marriage.  JB: They have given me that.  LB: You know, when I watch Jenna and Henry, the way they like to laugh together or talk together, I think that&amp;#039;s how George and I are. One of the very first things I liked about him was his sense of humor. And I knew that I&amp;#039;d want to be married to somebody I could laugh with for the rest of my life.  RE: It&amp;#039;s so key.  LB: And once you start having children...I mean, 13-year-old twin girls can be difficult.  RE: You&amp;#039;d better have a sense of humor. By the way, is there a children&amp;#039;s book character, Jenna, that your fianc\u00E9, Henry, reminds you of?  JB: Well, he kind of reminds me of Max in In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. I think Max kind of looks like Henry. But a lot of people say he looks like Flat Stanley [in Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown], so I&amp;#039;m not sure. He&amp;#039;s very tall and very skinny.  RE: Do you think marriage is going to be different for Jenna than it was for you, Mrs. Bush?  LB: I think it will be very similar, although I think Jenna \u2014 and Barbara, probably, when she gets married \u2014 will continue more of a career than I did. It was a wonderful luxury to be at home with Barbara and Jenna. We didn&amp;#039;t take our children for granted. We were always so thrilled and felt so blessed, especially to get two at once, at our age. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a16693/laura-bush-jenna-bush/>