How to flip this sentence

Question

So in this lesson, I was studying this sentence: “Pour calmer mes enfants, je leur lis une histoire.” I also remembered that lui/leur is only used when a verb goes with “à”, like “Je téléphone à mon frère” —> “Je lui téléphone.” So is this grammatically correct? “Pour calmer mes enfants, je leur lis une histoire.” —> “Je lis une histoire à mes enfants pour leur calmer.”

Accepted Answer

In your rewrite, the relevant verb for selection of the object pronoun to replace ‘mes enfants’ is ‘calmer’ not ‘lire à’. 
In the original it is ‘read something to someone’, (lire à….) whereas you have changed it to ‘read something (in order to do something) to someone’ (lire pour calmer…). 
It is the verb immediately following the object pronoun that determines whether a direct object or indirect object pronoun is needed.
So in your rewrite, it should be ‘…. pour les calmer’ - direct object pronoun, not ‘…. pour leur calmer’ - indirect object pronoun.
 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/lire
 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/calmer
 https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/position-of-object-pronouns-in-sentences-with-infinitives
 https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/when-to-use-le-la-l-or-les-to-replace-nouns-direct-object-pronouns

Answer

"I think it should be "Je is une histoire à mes enfants pour les calmer".Not sure if my suggestion is correct but it's worth looking into it.