21/06/2026
This photograph was taken in 1977.
That man reading to my brother and me is my Dad, Mike Lindridge. And what he was doing in that moment, night after night after night, was quietly, unknowingly, changing the entire course of my life.
I didn't know it then. I just knew I loved it. The ritual of it. Climbing in, getting settled, waiting for the story to begin. That feeling of being held, not just physically, but by words, by imagination, by the voice of someone who loved you.
What my Dad gave me in those bedtime reading sessions wasn't just stories. Research now tells us that children who are read to regularly develop stronger vocabulary, better critical thinking skills, improved academic performance, and a deeper capacity for empathy. The landmark Becoming a Nation of Readers report concluded that "the single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children." It plants seeds for a lifelong, positive association with reading, while nurturing brain development in those critical early years.
My Dad also encouraged my drawing, my painting, my writing. He was my biggest cheerleader across every creative endeavour, and he never once suggested I aim smaller. He fostered a love of stories that grew, over time, into a love of telling them. Of writing them. Of illustrating them.
Which is how, a few decades on from that photograph, I became a children's book author.
My third picture book, Good Night, South Africa, published by Penguin, is a love letter to this country, page by page, in words and pictures. And every single time I visit a school, every time a child looks up from the pages with that particular light in their eyes, I think about my Dad. About a man who simply read to his kids at bedtime and had absolutely no idea what he was starting.
To every dad reading this: what you do matters more than you know. The books you read, the stories you share, the quiet ritual of bedtime and imagination, you are building something in your child that no school, no screen, no algorithm can replicate.
You are building a reader. And you might just be building a writer.
Happy Father's Day, Dad. You started all of this.
And to all the dads out there doing the reading, the tucking in, the "just one more chapter," happy Father's Day to every single one of you.
Good Night, South Africa is available now from all reputable bookstores, and online at www.goodnightsouthafrica.co.za
❤️🐘📕
Penguin Random House SA Kids ゚viralシ
