The new year has begun....

Those New Year resolutions are hot off the press and burning a hole in your mind and conscience...can I? will I? why should I? what was I thinking? Do not despair. The resolutions you cannot be true to will fall away but the important ones will keep cropping up and somehow you will manage to carry them out. I hope one of those resolutions is for you to take up the daily challenge of reading out loud to your kids. It is so very important and so very doable. Don't think of it as a burden or a daily "grind" but as a wonderful opportunity to bond with your child, cuddle with your child, converse with your child and finally to make a huge difference in the literacy journey of that child. Books "bind" people together (pun intended) and open up minds and imaginations to the possibilities of life and beyond. You can, should, and will make the right choice to start gathering books to share with your child. Make it a New Year's game, a new "chapter" (pun intended) of living the life of book explorer this year. I cannot impress upon you enough the significance of this choice. Books free the mind to visit exciting places, to have unlimited emotional reactions to storybook characters and precious, one-on-one quality time with someone you love. Everyone wins when books are added into the reading equation. Book-it-up this year. Read today to someone you love.