ABSTRACT
Web site: https://www.sharondenniswyeth.com" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.sharondenniswyeth.com
“I learned to write my first word in kindergarten. The word was ‘beautiful.’ I remember running home, waving the paper with my word on it in the air. To make a word, by myself, to make it come out of the end of my pencil—what a joyous sensation! At five years old, I already was a big sister with three little brothers at home, but my mother made time to read that word ‘beautiful’ over and over again, expressing her pride in me.
I was in a classroom in the Bronx where I volunteer a few times a year to acquaint children with the writing process and to inspire them to read more. I shared my book, Something Beautiful. After I’d finished reading, the children were very quiet. The story is about a child living in a dense urban environment—like I did, like those children in the classroom do. ‘What do you think?’ I asked the children. One little voice piped up: ‘I am in that book! I am in that book!’ That’s enough for me. In my ear, I have the memory of that child’s little voice, saying ‘I am in that book!’”
