Reading is My Superpower

I decided to write a children’s book after volunteering to teach at a local parish and was surprised by the reading skills of some of the children, who were already in middle school.

I grew up in the 1960s in a rural, segregated town in the Mississippi Delta that was not even on a map. A public library was not available to me as a person of color. However, my parents were educators and always made sure there were reading materials available in our home. My father taught at a local HBCU, and my mother was a reading specialist and resource teacher. Reading was an adventure, an exploration of what could be that reinforced my parents’ affirmation that the circumstances nor the constraints of the environment define or confine me.

I learned to read at a very early age and entered first grade shortly after my 4th birthday. So as a child, reading was a superpower for me.

To impress upon the students the importance of good reading and writing skills, I challenged them to identify a single task that did not require understanding the basics of reading: word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. Channeling my mother, what was supposed to be a substitute position turned into a ten-year stint, teaching not only the course material but the fundamentals of reading!

Finally, I reflected on my most cherished moments spent with my daughter growing up. The times spent reading together and later watching her develop a voracious love and joy of reading are right at the top. So, I set out to author a book that engaged not only children, but the adults in their lives to hopefully sow seeds of generational love of reading.