Read a Book Day

September 6th is "Read a Book Day".

When I was young, I hated reading. I think part of the reason I hated reading was that I:

1) had to read what my teachers wanted me to read

2) had to read the book within a certain time frame (when the assignment was given to when the report was due)

3) had to write a book report when I was done

But as I got older, and the classes I was taking were more in the category of subjects I liked, for the most part the books we were asked to read were more likely to be books I enjoyed. Also, as I began to read on my own (after college), I got to choose to read the books I wanted to read.

Here are some books I like.

One of my first short stories, "The Princess Who Wanted to be Beautiful" started out as a bedtime story for the children of a close friend. I had been worrying about the "Disney Syndrome" whereby all the heroes are beautiful and all the ugly people are villains. This is a story about a princess who has heard that all princesses are beautiful and doesn't think she is beautiful. She decides to go to a wizard and ask him to make her beautiful but along the way she makes some friends and learns a lesson about herself.

One of my short stories, "The Gold Star" is now available in illustrated form. The story is about a young boy named Shmuel who helps a poor man without the man knowing.

Spoonflower features custom designed fabric. Click on the picture to see Compugraph Designs' Spoonflower fabric shop. My designs include a baby book of opposites to sew for your favorite baby.