Before I was old enough to go to school, my mother would read to me
hours upon hours. She read nursery rhymes, Little Golden books, fairy
tales, fables, poems, biographies, and short stories. As the characters
changed, her voice would change to reflect their personalities. The way
she read each sentence made me hunger for the next one. That's when I
fell in love with the written word, and by the time I started school, I
was "sentenced for life."