Thank you Jon and Jarrett

I am very fortunate to have a job that I love. I look forward to going to work every day and to creating programs that encourage children to find the joy in reading. It is very rare for me to have a bad day at the office. Lo and behold, today I had a bad day at the office. The reason for the bad day is not important. The focus, as I always tell one of my younger daughters, should be on the positive you can extract from a negative situation. My silver lining today was woven by the amazing people around me - my brilliant staff and two beloved children's book authors - Jon Scieszka and Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Jon and Jarrett are incredibly talented authors and, in Jarrett's case, artists, who are equally incredible people.  They are both very smart and very funny as well as compassionate, kind and community-minded. Jon created Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys and as the country's inaugural National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, his platform was "Reaching Reluctant readers". Jarrett is one of the organizers of the MELTDOWN, The River’s Family Music and Book Fest and, as host of the 2011 Children's Choice Book Awards, he reached out to every finalist and every presenter on Twitter and Facebook and helped raise awareness of the program to a whole new level (not surprisingly, his book Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown won the award for 3rd-4th Grade Book of the Year). These are two guys who think beyond themselves and give of themselves regularly. We can all learn so much from them both.

By way of thanks to Jon and Jarrett, this post is dedicated to them, with my profound gratitude. Please take time to visit Jon's website and Jarrett's website. Each has created an astounding collection of books for little ones and middle ones. Each can be counted on to make you smile and laugh out loud - no matter how old you are! I'm truly honored to know them both.