Like many people, I grew up in a less-than-perfect family. But when my mother put me on her lap and read aloud, books became a place of security, sanity, and closeness. My father died when I was two, and one of the few things he left behind was a bound book of his writings. Not till I was grown did I remember my childhood vow to live out the writing passion he didn’t have a chance to fulfill. I’m still indebted to both reading and writing and amazed by how they transport me and others to magical places.

When I studied for my Master’s Degree with Dr. Marguerite Bougere at Tulane University, she taught me the "Lap Method" of teaching reading. "You put a child on your lap and read aloud," she said, "and the child will want to read and grow up to love reading." This made sense of my childhood experiences, explained my passion for reading, and for the excitement I saw in the children I was teaching.

I experienced this passion and excitement in a new way when I read aloud to my own children. Children’s books rescued me when I didn't how to talk about certain subjects. How could I have shooed away monsters from my toddler son’s room without repeated readings of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, or explained menstruation to my daughter without Karen Gravelle’s The Period Book? Books opened conversations I never would have imagined. William Steig’s Dr. DeSoto helped me explain risk-taking to my son. My daughter learned the importance of a writer’s style as we chuckled at A.A. Milne’s writing in Winnie-the-Pooh. Best of all, daily stress faded away during nightly reading sessions. We almost fell out of bed laughing at Don Wood’s illustrations in The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear. We cried together over John Gardiner’s Stone Fox. Books let us escape into magical worlds like the ones in Brian Jacques’ Redwall series.

My passion for children’s books and my yearning for community led me to launch a business called Once Upon a Lap. I carted crates of my favorite new books to people’s homes for Children's Book Parties. I discovered I loved presenting and watching people connect with books and each other. I soon found a wider audience when I began to write about the children’s books I loved. And I was delighted by the book reviewer’s greatest perk-- every day, anywhere from two to 50 free children’s books would arrive at my house.

The publication of my children’s book, Extraordinary Chester (Red Hen, 1988) took me into school auditoriums where I explained to students publication processes that once puzzled me--how a large, two-sided, printed page folds up to become eight pages of a picture book, or how color separations combine in pictures. I read my book aloud and as my main character, Chester, turned into a monster, I surprised elementary school students by pulling horns and a long tail from a big black bag, turning myself into a monster as Chester transforms.

As my own children grew and parenting demands decreased, I looked for new ways to create book and writing communities. For almost twenty years, I have been sharing writing and reading experiences on college campuses, in elementary school classrooms, and in library and community center meeting rooms where I invite people of all ages to join me the adventure of thinking and wondering about and delighting in books and writing.