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Barbershop pays kids $3 to read books out loud while they get their haircut

It's all about boosting kids' confidence, says City Cuts founder Jon Escueta.

Courtesy of City Cuts/Instagram

Kids at City Cuts read to their barbers out loud.

Jon Escueta was coaching youth basketball—teams of 5th to 8th graders—when he noticed that a lot of the kids struggled to talk to one another. "My players were afraid to communicate with each other and speak publicly during practice and in games," he tells Upworthy. So, he prioritized helping the kids build those speaking skills one by one during huddles and active practice.

Seeing those kids blossom, Escueta thought, "How can I implement this in my barbershop?"

Escueta is a licensed barber who owns City Cuts, a barbershop in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, that's all about "Giving back. Doing the right thing. Creating a community. Caring about each other." Wanting to help the kids who come into the barbershop build confidence in themselves beyond just getting a good haircut, Escueta started the Books by Kids initiative.

The concept is simple: While kids are getting their haircut, they read a book out loud to their hairdresser—and they get $3 as an incentive to do so. Here's what it looks like in action:

Escueta says it's all about boosting their confidence in speaking to strangers.

"Kids can start as young as pointing at picture books of certain cartoon characters, colors, animals or whatever they would like to look at," he tells Upworthy. "Even just a few words or sentences—it’s the effort of trying and eventually will turn into chapters and louder voices."

It's a brilliant tactic, as having a book in hand removes some of the pressure kids can feel in new social situations and gives them something specific to talk about. Barbers can ask them questions about their books, and reading out loud also helps kids practice speaking loudly and clearly.

In 2019, Escueta shared with CNN that he struggled with socializing when he came to the U.S. at age 8 from the Philippines. “I didn’t know English and that was a lot,” he said. “I felt like I was being judged.” So the kids who come into his barbershop feeling hesitant to talk have a special place in his heart.

“The ones who are timid—I gravitate toward those kids.” he said. “I know what it feels like and try to make them feel good about themselves.”

According to Escueta, approximately 75% of adults experience a phobia or anxiety related to public speaking, and the objective of Books by Kids is to increase kids' self-assurance through reading aloud.

People love the idea of combining reading with a trip to the barbershop:

"Goes to show that no matter what your job is , you can make a difference for others."

"This is amazing! This is how you change the world."

"Absolutely wonderful…such positive results and a 'win' for both!"

"I love that his barber is correcting his pronunciation and keeping an eye on the book while he cuts."

"This is such a fantastic initiative! It's wonderful to see a business not only providing a service but investing in the community and fostering a love of reading in young people. What a creative way to build confidence and encourage literacy!"

Parents who bring their kids to City Cuts appreciate it, too. One parent wrote in a comment that their child had "become more confident reading in front of people…..which has led to him being more confident in front of groups of people. You guys do something pretty amazing with these kids and it doesn’t go unnoticed."

Another parent told CNN that she would drive 20 minutes to take her son to get his hair cut there because the kind barbers and the reading program have helped him build trust and become more comfortable.

It truly is a win-win when a business has happy customers who return again and again because they're getting a little something extra, and in this case that something extra is truly an extraordinary gift for kids and parents like.

You can follow City Cuts on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

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Someone accidentally started a 'silent book club' and introverts are giddy over the idea

This is heaven for some of us.

Photo credit: Canva

Being social doesn't have to entail lots of talking.

Not all bookworms are introverts and not all introverts are bookworms, but it's probably safe to say there's significant overlap between the two. And while some introverted bookworms might enjoy a traditional book club where everyone reads the same book and discusses it at length, others might not. For some, that much forced talking isn't desirable, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't want some kind of social experience connecting them to other readers.

There's an ideal solution for those folks—the silent book club.

A user on Reddit (u/ccomplished_Arm3647) shared what a silent book club entails and how they accidentally created one at their local coffee shop:

"So, here's a funny little story about how I unintentionally created a new social group in my town. A few weeks ago, I was at my favorite coffee shop, deeply engrossed in a novel. An older gentleman approached me and asked what I was reading. We had a brief but lovely chat about books. The next week, I was there again with a different book. The same man showed up, this time with his own book. We nodded at each other, smiled, and went back to our reading. Week three: I arrive to find the man already there. He's brought a friend. They're both reading silently. I join them at their table, and we all read in comfortable silence for an hour. Fast forward to yesterday. I walk into the coffee shop, and there are TWELVE people scattered around, all silently reading books. The barista grins at me and says, 'Your club is getting pretty popular!' Apparently, word had spread about the 'Silent Book Club' that meets every Wednesday at 4 PM. People just show up, read whatever they want, and occasionally chat during coffee refill breaks. I've accidentally created the most introvert-friendly book club ever, and I'm happy about it."

Silent book clubs allow people to be sociable without having to be overly social

People are loving the idea:

"Omg this is the type of book club I can get behind!!!"

"Silent Book Club is the best idea anyone has ever had."

"This is the kind of book club I need. I want to be sociable but not that much by talking."

"Silence, books and coffee, I WANT this in my life."

Others shared that silent book clubs are an actual, organized thing in their local areas:

"We have a few Silent Book Clubs in my area. My local library started doing it twice a month. I love the coffee shop idea though."

"My town has a silent book club that's so popular you have to sign up for meetings so they don't overwhelm host locations. While this is exactly the sort of thing I'd enjoy, apparently having to preregister is too much for me."

"We had one of these in NC. We met for a social hour, then all read silently for an hour, then wrapped up with another socialization before leaving. We had 20 people at times. The waiters thought we were a hoot - sitting together but not talking for a bit. But we tipped well!"

"I didn't start it but I went to my first one of these in my town recently and it was wonderful, can't wait for the next one this week. Reckon every town should have one!"

"My local library does Adult Silent Reading hours with snacks, sounds pretty similar."

"I host one at the library! We call it BYOB!"

people in a coffee shop with booksSilent book club entails minimal chatting.Photo credit: Canva

"My local indie bookshop does this - we meet in a nearby pub, everyone brings whatever they want to read. We talk about what we’re reading for 30 mins, swapping ideas, then we read in silence for an hour. And have another 30 mins of chat after. So dedicated reading time!"

"This is so cool. In our country there was a silent reading event in a park, calling all book readers to come, find their own comfort and read together. No discussion, no chats, just people reading together in silence. People can come and go as they like."

There are established Silent Book Clubs people can join all over the world

There's actually a Silent Book Club organization that has more than 1,000 chapters in 50 countries. If you can't find one near where you live, you can start one of your own.

It might be hard for someone who enjoys talking to understand, but being sociable doesn't have to include a lot of conversation. Sometimes people want to be around others who share a common interest, even if that common interest is something being done as an individual and in silence. A little casual chatting about what books people are reading is more than enough for some folks; not everyone needs or wants a full-fledged book club discussion.

If you want to find an already established silent book club in your area, check out silentbook.club and enjoy an "introvert happy hour" with fellow readers.

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Family

They said no one would read a novel about dads — I wrote one anyway.

Nearly 80 percent of all books are bought by women

Evan Porter

The first time I sat down to write a fictional story (about 13 years ago), I wrote a screenplay jam-packed with stuff a 20-something year old guy thought was cool.

There was a bank heist gone wrong. Guns. Bad guys. Car chases. Explosions!

Since then I've become a father to two amazing girls, and for a long time my writing career was put on the backburner.

(Turns out, you suddenly have a lot less free time as a parent.)

But in early 2021, after many long months of COVID lockdown, I wanted to try writing something straight from the heart, something that better reflected who I am now — nostalgic, sentimental, both excited for and terrified of watching my girls grow up — and I wanted to try it as a novel.

So I came up with the idea of a bunch of dads trying (and hilariously struggling) to connect with their daughters at a weeklong summer camp retreat.

There was just one problem. 'Heartfelt novels by and about dudes' wasn't exactly a thriving literary genre.

There are plenty of books written by and mostly for men, of course.

But those are usually confined to genres like military or historical fiction, or SciFi. Basically, anything with weapons and/or spaceships and possibly murder.

Men also read somewhat prominently in biography and memoir.

But books about family and relationships and (gasp) love from a male perspective? That seemed to be fairly uncharted territory.

So where did that leave me and my idea to write a book that was funny and heartwarming and all about fatherhood?

I wasn't sure. But I knew the story I wanted to tell and I knew that I wanted to take great TV dads like Bandit from Bluey, Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, Carl Winslow from Family Matters, Alan Matthews from Boy Meets World and so many others — and see them represented on the page.

So I wrote the book anyway.


Holding an early draft of the manuscript in 2022Evan Porter

As I went along, I kept searching for more books like what I hoped to write. Generally, they were few and far between, but I was eventually heartened to find that they did exist.

Authors like Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby, Matthew Norman, and Richard Roper were doing amazing things in male-centered fiction that didn't involve guns and aliens, but rather focused on emotion and relationships and even romance.

Still, even with those guys blazing the trail, that didn't make things any easier when I started pitching my finished novel, Dad Camp, to literary agents.

A lot of them told me they just weren't sure what the market was for a book like mine. Who's going to read this? It seemed unfathomable that actual dads would read it, so surely it had to have crossover appeal to the childrens market, or it needed a strong romance element to draw in female readers.

Many even liked the story a lot but just didn't know how to pitch it to publishers.

It's easy to see why my book, Dad Camp, was a hard sell. Men just don't read in large enough numbers.

You can hardly go anywhere on the Internet without running into the "why don't men read" discourse.

That's because the facts are inescapable:

Around 80% of book sales come from women. Every study and survey and data set you can find shows that boys read less than girls starting in childhood and the gap only gets worse and worse as they get older.

Why don't men read more? Well, there are a lot of theories.

A lot of men report finding reading fiction to be a waste of time, that they have to be productive with their 'downtime' instead — which would explain why men are actually big readers of non-fiction, which is deemed more useful.

(Weirdly, that mindset doesn't seem to stop men from watching movies or television or spending tons of time gaming.)

Other theories say that men's brains just aren't wired as well for inhabiting the mind of different characters and empathizing with them.

And then there is the self-fulfilling prophecy of it all. Since men don't read, boys don't have as many good reading role models, and the cycle continues on and on.

The proven benefits of reading for men

Us dudes with our "linear thinking brains" like hard data, right? Well it's difficult to argue with the science behind reading fiction. It's extremely clear cut.

When you read fiction, you exercise your brain's Theory of Mind, or its ability to understand that other people are thinking and feelings and experiencing different things than you are.

People who read fiction frequently display more creativity, more empathy for others, and more skill in social relationships.

I'd like to see a non-fiction or self-help book that can achieve that.

And get this, some data even shows that readers live longer than non-readers!

So instead of spending a fortune on reducing your biological age and doing things like having young people's blood injected into your veins, just try picking up a $17.99 paperback novel.

In the end, I was lucky enough to find an agent and publisher that believed in Dad Camp as much as I did.

Novels on a bookshelfSeeing Dad Camp on shelves at the bookstore for the first time was a pretty special feelingEvan Porter

And I'm really excited that it's out there in the world finding its audience of, not just dads, but moms and daughters and anyone who knows or loves a dad.

One last point from my research that really stood out was that men are apparently extremely reluctant to pick up books from female authors — a perspective, you could argue, we desperately need!

I'd like to hope that, one day, my book could be something of a bridge, and show more men that it's actually good and fun to read about relationships and family and romance.

Once you cross that bridge, there's a whole world of amazing books and storytellers waiting for you — and the positive impact those stories have on your brain and well-being will be well worth the effort.

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Teen bullied for loving books gets an avalanche of support from those who love reading, too

A tweet from his sister has already been liked more than 180,000 times.

via Analysees Consulting / Twitter

Callum Manning and his favorite books.

There are few more fulfilling hobbies than having a love of books.

Reading isn't just a great way to have a good time. Reading increases brain connectivity, makes people more empathetic, reduces depression symptoms, improves vocabulary, and may even cause you to live longer.

It's a huge benefit for a child's development as well. According to Parent.com, reading "stimulates the side of the brain that helps with mental imagery, understanding, and language processing, and that brain activity."

Sure beats wasting time playing video games.


Thirteen-year-old Callum Manning wanted to share his love of reading with the world, so he created an Instagram account where he posted photos of the books he's read. It started with a post about Stephen King's "The Shining."

"So I guess I'm going to start this account off with one of my favourite books, Callum wrote. "This book was the first book I read in 1 day. And I was like 10. So yeah it scared me."

He would go on to fill his pages with books such as "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "1984" by George Orwell, and current classics such as "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin and "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" by J.K. Rowling

Kids Callum's age can be exceptionally cruel. A group of them created a group chat where they bullied him for his love of books and then invited him to join. After subjecting him to emotional abuse, they kicked him out of the chat.

"I don't tend to cry that often but I think that was the first time in a while I've actually cried," Callum told PA Media.

His older sister, Ellis Landreth, was understandably upset about the cruelty, so she tweeted about the group chat, hoping about "20 or 30 of my friends [would] like a few of his posts or follow him or give him some words of encouragement."

Her tweet would go viral, receiving over 180,000 likes.


She was bombarded by responses from people who wanted to support her brother.

Just a few hours after the tweet, Callum received thousands of followers on his page. In just three days, he's up to nearly 400,000 followers. He's also received countless messages of support through the page.

English novelist Matt Haig sent Callum a collection of books, adding: "Hey let's all follow Cals Book Account on Instagram and show him some support." A book store near Manning's home in northeast England promised him a book on the house.

Callum's story was shared on Instagram by authors Caroline Kepnes and Malorie Blackman.

The teenager received over 15,000 messages in his DMs. "He's absolutely overwhelmed," Landreth told CNN. "He can't even get through all his DMs."

Callum's mother is over the moon about the response. "She's so happy people are spreading positive messages about these issues," Landreth said. "No matter how small some things seem, they can stick with kids forever."


This article originally appeared on 03.04.20

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