The prime purpose of being four is to enjoy being four - of secondary importance is to prepare for being five.

No player in the NBA was born wanting to play basketball. The desire to play ball or to read must be planted. The last 25 years of research show that reading aloud to a child is the oldest, cheapest and must successful method of instilling that desire. Shooting baskets with a child creates a basketball player; reading to a child creates a reader.

Neither books nor people have Velcro Sides -- there must be a bonding agent -- someone who attaches child to book.

A nation that does not read much does not know much. And a nation that does not know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth. And those decisions ultimately affect the entire nation...the literate and illiterate.

What we teach children to love and desire will always outweigh what we make them learn.

Students who read the most also read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest. Conversely, those who dont read much cannot get better at it.

Readers don't grow in trees. But they are grown-in places where they are fertilized with lots of print, and above all, read to daily.