Am I not reading correctly?

“Help! I can’t find my flashlight and I’m scared,” whispered John.

“Hi Mom. I’m sorry I broke your favorite vase,” screamed Chris.

When I’m reading to the kids at night, I feel as though I am doing something wrong. I find that much of the time I read the quote only to learn that I read it with the wrong feeling or volume.

Why are the descriptions of how the quote read after the quote itself? What is the correct way to read so that you are accurately reading the story? Do people skip ahead (somehow) with their eyes to determine how the quote should be read?

Would it make more sense for it to be formatted more like this:

John whispered, “Help! I can’t find my flashlight and I’m scared.”

Chris screamed, “Hi Mom. I’m sorry I broke your favorite vase.”

Or even better, something like this…

<Communication Speaker=“John” Volume=“low” Whisper=“1” Scream=“0” Data=“Help! I can’t find my flashlight and I’m scared.”>

<Communication Speaker=“Chris” Volume=“high” Whisper=“0” Scream=“1” Data=“Hi Mom. I’m sorry I broke your favorite vase.”>

Ok, I’m not serious about the last part.

How can I read this stuff out loud correctly?