ABSTRACT
E-mail: dpoet@umich.edu
“We must encourage children to cultivate their analytical skills and their inner lives through reading books. It’s never too late to encourage good reading habits. Parents, relatives, siblings, and friends can encourage reading by giving books as gifts, establishing a reading list for the summer months and sharing their favorite books. Parents and grandparents should consider establishing a tradition of sharing and writing family stories to enhance reading in the home.
“My first responsibility as an author is to tell an engaging, compelling story. The goal of each story is to engage, comfort, inspire, and satisfy a reader. The stories I write are certainly influenced by recollections of my childhood, but I use those ideas as springboards for my tales. I wrote my first story when I was six years old, but my mother gave me a tremendous gift by teaching me to read. My foundation as a writer was laid by being read to and, later, by reading independently. My mother made books accessible to me, and in so doing opened up worlds far beyond my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Books from the library, thrift shop or supermarket provided answers to my endless questions and also prompted me to ask new ones.”
