Little Miss is the story of a two-year experiment Nathan Meikle conducted with his daughter Kyla. When Kyla was two years old, Nathan taught her to read at a kindergarten level. By age three Kyla could read at a 3rd grade level. But Nathan never thought Kyla was gifted–he’s convinced that others will achieve similar results using the same techniques. Moreover, given that a small advantage early in life often leads to a large advantage later–especially in reading ability–Nathan wanted to share his experience. Little Miss is that story: how and why he taught his toddler to read.

But Little Miss is also a story within a story.

In the process of teaching Kyla to read, Nathan discovered research on the benefits of reading to children. He had always known that reading to Kyla was important, but had never known exactly why. The research inspired him to find all of the best children’s books–thousands in the next year–and read to Kyla daily. The more good books he found, the more they read, and the more they read, the more good books they found. In the first year of their experiment, they went from reading 300 books per year to 3,000.

Little Miss: a father, his daughter, and rocket science is the story of how and why Nathan made such a reading jump. In addition to sharing hundreds of Nathan’s and Kyla’s favorite books, Little Miss shares the research that inspired him. Reading to children is the number one, most important thing parents can do to help their children become readers. And children who read the most, read the best, and stay in school the longest.

One of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child is a love of learning. In the words of Louisa Moats, “Teaching reading is rocket science.”