I was going to post all about the American Library Association book awards that were announced in January, but I’m not excited about them anymore. It was two months ago and I didn’t fall in love with the Newbery winner. I wanted to fall in love with the book, but sadly it was not to be. Maybe you will. Every reader brings something different to what they read, maybe you will read Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina and it will change your life. It can happen, books can change our lives. I just read A Story About Cancer (with a happy ending) by India Desjardins. The book was written because a young woman was speaking to the author about not ever wanting to read a book about cancer again because they all had sad endings and she was battling cancer. Desjardins immediately wrote the book and published it online so the young woman could read a story with a happy ending. It took years before the young woman had the courage to read it, books had affected her that much.

I love it when a book lingers with me, I think about for weeks after I read it and can still recall it years later. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Some books sooth me and set me on a better course in life, some rile me up and get me angry about the world, some make me laugh, some make me cry, and some I want to forget that I ever read. Books and stories have power, our words have power. My father is a writer, he can’t help it. The words just flow from him and he feels wrong when he hasn’t written for long periods of time. He understands that every time he writes and shares his stories he is sharing himself and maybe, just maybe, changing someone else’s life.

Share a story with the world. If you are a reader, read and tell someone else about the book you fell in love with. If you write, share your story and change someone else’s life.

As always, I am saying read (or listen, audiobooks count too), it will make your life better.

If you want to read about this year’s crop of ALA youth award winners, click here.

Miss Jenn