Adam Prudhomme
Editor
An Amherstview mom is inspiring the next generation of readers through her YouTube channel, Ruthy’s Reading Room.
Michelle McDonald is both the on camera talent and behind the scenes creator of the channel, which just recently celebrated its second anniversary. In that time she’s uploaded over 150 videos of herself reading a wide assortment of kids books to an audience of over 500 subscribers.
“Back when I was on maternity leave with my daughter, she’s four now, we would go to the story time program at our library here in Amherstview,” McDonald said of the inspiration behind the channel. “We really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it as a parent and the facilitator, her name was Amy, I really appreciated how she really connected with the kids and made reading books really fun and engaging.”
Also motivating her to launch the channel were the children she worked with in her day job as a child protection worker.
“I was thinking about the families that I serve and the kids that I see and I recognized it’s not always a priority or not always a focus to do story time or to read to the kids,” she said. “So I thought how could these kids have exposure to story time like that?”
The final piece of inspiration on what platform to launch her idea came from her son.
“YouTube is accessible, my son was four or five and he was able to navigate the touch screen,” she said. “I thought this was an easy medium for any age really to click onto. I put all those things together. I thought if I can do a channel that’s educational and fun that would maybe pique a child’s interest to listen to a story.”
The name of her channel was drawn from her childhood nickname, though not one of which she was always so fond. Over time she’s come to embrace being called by her middle name, plus the alliteration of Ruthy’s Reading Room was too good to ignore.
After some initial trial and error, McDonald discovered reading books written by independent authors was the perfect win-win situation. She gets to feature some lesser-known stories while smaller budget authors enjoy more exposure.
“I definitely love to highlight if there are lessons or morals,” McDonald said of reading the stories. “It is a bit more than just reading the story and done. I do like to interact and engage as much as you can on a YouTube channel, which is how the kids get drawn in. I just imagine how they’re answering or they’re responding. I do try to ask questions and make sure that they’re understanding what the lesson like did you realize that this child was being bullied and what would you do in that situation? I definitely like to bring out the lesson in the story.”
Along with YouTube, she can be heard Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. on Amherst Island Radio 92.1.
Though admittedly a step she inadvertently skipped in the beginning, she’s now working with Lennox and Addington County’s economic development team to create a business plan for the channel. She hopes to continue to grow the channel with the intent to one day make it a full time endevaour.
Ruthy’s Reading Room can be found on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Links to her latest videos are posted on her social media accounts.