This is how you hold onto your family. You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own. It's just that simple.

Read to your children Twenty minutes a day; You have the time, And so do they. Read while the laundry is in the machine; Read while the dinner cooks; Tuck a child in the crook of your arm And reach for the library books. Hide the remote, Let the computer games cool, For one day your children will be off to school; Remedial? Gifted? You have the choice; Let them hear their first tales In the sound of your voice. Read in the morning; Read over noon; Read by the light of Goodnight Moon. Turn the pages together, Sitting close as you'll fit, Till a small voice beside you says, "Hey, don't quit.

With the poetry of plain speaking, Shannon Hitchcock recreates the daily drama of a vanished world.

If you're going to read minds, start with a simple one.

When I read a good book, it's like traveling the world without ever leaving my chair.

Grandma, how old is she?" "Oh I don't know." Grandma said. "You'd have to cut off her head and count the rings in her neck.

The years went by, and Mary Alice and I grew up, Slower than we wanted to, faster than we realized.