I can't remember learning to read.
My grandfather once said, "I never saw anything like it. Kristi picked up a book and started reading on her own!"
It was true. My mother was a teacher, and I was one of those fortunate children who spent early childhood in the lap of a parent or grandparent listening to favorites like "Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Poky Little Puppy." Books were a part of my daily life.
By the time I was five, I was reading independently; when I was in first grade, I was writing my first stories for my teacher. In second grade, I began writing chapter books in the classroom when I was bored!
Writers are born, not made, or maybe that's the other way around. I loved books, I craved good stories, and I wanted to create my own. I can still picture a set of mini chapter books I wrote and illustrated, lining them up on my bookshelf with great precision. They were my treasures.
As I grew, of course, my taste in books and literature evolved. I graduated from Beverly Cleary's Ramona series to the classic "Anne of Green Gables" collection, then on to my beloved Mary Stewart. Mary Stewart was a British novelist (1916-2014) who is known for developing the romantic mystery genre. I was introduced to her works at around age 9, when my mother tells me I had "read every book in the children's section of the public library" so she promptly took me to the adult section -- to a classic writer.
I own every Mary Stewart novel and have read and reread them. They are my "comfort" books. I loved the language, the imagery, the high-brow sentimentality of them, the romance, the adventure ... they were reminiscent of a world from the past, one my soul longed for, even as a child.
The young writer in me still lives on, and she yearns to touch a new generation of young readers. In this age of fast-paced TikToks, social media, and graphic novels I feel that our children have long lost an appreciation for classic literature, for a love of the written word, and for good old fashioned story-telling.
This is a real shame.
In 2026, let's take time to read to our children, and to share our own stories with them. After all, we each have our own stories to tell! One day, all that will remain of our lives will be memories. It is up to us to write those chapters now so that our children will be inspired one day to write their own stories ... and to pass them on to the next generation.
