I Love to Read

Sometimes when I substitute teach, I play a little game with the students. I have them write down three things about themselves that they don't think anyone in the class knows about them. Then I read the clues and the class tries to guess who the person is. I did this with a third grade class this week. I was delighted that upon reading the clues for several of the students that they had all written: I love to read. Wonderful!

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday. The first thing I did when I woke up was say my morning prayer...which has actually continued throughout the day. It is a prayer of thanks--all thanks, no asking, today. It's been a good life--not always easy, but good. I've been thinking of the specific things for which I am grateful.

I thank my Heavenly Father for books, for the ability to read. Think about the impact that the ability to read has had in your life! What an amazing miracle.

I thank my Heavenly Father for imagination, creativity, the ability to explore worlds of my own creation, the ability to look at life in different ways.

Love of Books

There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.

–Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I love it when I see a child totally immersed in a book.

Hooray for Non-Fiction

We had a delightful evening with our daughter's family. She and her husband have two wonderful sons, 9 and 6. They love reading non-fiction books. Around the dinner table we had a lively conversation about what the fastest animal was, the fastest chicken, what is the deepest ocean in the world, and on and on.

I was amazed at what these boys know about the world around them! They just love checking out stacks of library books--especially non-fiction. How cool is that!

Read, Read, Read

Not only do I love to write, I also love to read. I have found that if I want to write for a certain genre or certain age group, I must first read tons of books in their genre or for that age of child. If I want to write for beginning readers, I must read dozens of books written by various authors. I read somewhere that an aspiring author of children's books should read 100 books in the specific reading level on which he or she will be focusing.

Sounds about right.