Don’t you just love books? According to Emily Dickinson, “There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away.” Yes, books can make this journey called life an amazing adventure!
In “Pass It On,” my January 2026 blog, I thanked you for joining me on my writing journey and for supporting my latest children’s book Max and Her Stacks. In hindsight, I’m now calling that blog “Route 1.”
Like The Reading Life by C. S. Lewis and Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life, I’d like to share a glimpse into books that have affected my life and the life of Max, my new favorite literary character. (Yes, I know I’m biased, but I wrote the book!)
Each month of 2026 I hope to share specific details about books in Max’s stacks. If you’ve read Max and Her Stacks or tuned in to my Thunder Radio interview on Connecting Coffee County, then you may already know my hope for this book: basically to encourage more kids to read more books.
While my book is technically a children’s book, its theme focuses on literacy and the joy we can all garner from books.
According to C. S. Lewis, “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”
That’s why Max’s stacks of books include everything from classic nursery rhymes and mysteries to modern magic and fantasy and stories that appeal to all ages.
C. S. Lewis also believed we read because “we seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves. We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own.”
Books allow us to do that.
As I’ve been reading Max and Her Stacks to local elementary students, I’ve been honest about my own struggle with reading when I was young. I was a slow reader for years, and I continue to struggle sometimes with concentration, especially when reading books with dual timelines! Why are dual timelines such a popular trend these days??
At any rate, my journey, whether plowing through Jordan Peterson or savoring Theo of Golden or re-reading the Mitford series or studying the Bible, takes me on a welcome, albeit somewhat challenging, adventure. Obviously, I can’t share Max’s journey without sharing part of mine.
Max begins her journey with Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. If you have rocked and read this classic to a child in your own life, you know its impact.
I first discovered this book when a kindergarten teacher friend presented a program for our church ladies’ group on the theme of love. The cycling of love from one generation to the next hit home with our intergenerational group, and many of us shed a tear or two because we connected.
“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
As long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
In Max’s story, as in Love You Forever, I rocked Max “back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.” I knew at the time she was too young to understand the words, but the words made the connection between adult and child. This book connected us.
I also read nursery rhymes to Max during our weekly rocking and reading time. Again, as a baby she would not have understood the words or the meaning of the stories, and the rhythm of my reading coupled with our rocking most often lulled her to sleep. However, I believe she made an inward connection with the words and somehow made a connection with not only me but Bo Peep and Jack and Jill and Casey at the Bat and many others.
This early intervention with books is important. In those formative years when a child hears stories from a reader’s lap or from a Sunday school class where scriptures and song lyrics are repeated, those words are imbedded somewhere deep within the child. Hearing “Jesus Loves Me” on a regular basis or memorizing beloved Bible verses helps to hide those words within the child’s heart, and I believe these words become more and more meaningful over time.
I remember an elderly lady in my church who paid us Sunday school kids for memorizing scripture. While I treasured those quarters at the time, I now treasure the verses in my head and in my heart.
Psalm 119:11
Like reading Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar in high school and then studying it in depth in Dr. McDaniel’s college class and then delving into it year after year in my own teaching career, my connection with those words has evolved over the years. Even today, I have found new insights into those old words.
To my former students who are raising young children, I challenge you to read together every night. Take your kids to the library. Give them books for birthdays and other special occasions. Stack those books on special shelves in your home.
To other readers, why don’t you try again to read one of those books you neglected to read in school. It doesn’t have to be Tolstoy’s War and Peace. You could start with Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows. See if it speaks to you differently now than when you were younger. I also recommend reading and studying the wisdom in the book of James from the Bible. It’s only five chapters. You can do it!
Bottom line, I suggest spending more time with books and less time with technology. I can’t think of a better way to spend a snowy winter afternoon than with a good book.
My personal recommendation for the month: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I kept hearing hoards of hype about this book, so I approached it cautiously. It did not disappoint! Follow me on Goodreads for more suggestions.
I hope you will continue this reading journey with me as we travel along Route 3 in March.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God.”—2 Timothy 2:15
“When we stop to celebrate the many things we love, we look around and see that they are all gifts from above.”—from Night Night, Valentine by Amy Parker
“I took whatever book she put into my hand and made it part of me. I made it the life of me, the essence of my own tree of knowledge. With each book, I built a city out of what my heart loved, my soul yearned for, and my eyes desired.”—from Pat Conroy’s My Reading Life, in reference to the books his mother encouraged him to read
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”—W. Somerset Maugham
“Anyone who calls herself or himself a reader can tell you that it starts with encountering great books, heartfelt recommendations, and a community of readers who share this passion.”—from Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer
Psalm 119:105; 1 Corinthians 13:11; Proverbs 1:7; Romans 12:2; 1 Peter 2:2;
