And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.

What's my weirdest adventure? Yikes, there've been so very many. Perhaps the pig+vegetable+Taiwanese-army-guys boat ride to the island off the coast of Taiwan qualifies as the weirdest. Or at least the most seasick.

Reading a story should be a fabulous, wonderful thing. The most important thing that parents can do for kids is to read with them and to let their kids see them reading books for their own pleasure.

Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.

As a kid books changed how I looked at the world and helped me understand things. Books still deepen me and open my heart.

The Tale of Despereaux is the story of an unlikely hero, a mouse, who falls in love with a princess and then must save her. It's a triumph of the human spirit, via a mouse.

Go home and read to your adult. We forget how much we love to be read to.