Bluebird Books

 Every time I look online for advice on raising readers, one of the top two tips is always for the parents to read a lot. The author of the post or article will then spend a paragraph or two claiming that people who read a lot, in front of their kids, will inevitably raise kids who love books.  Well, I'm here to debunk this myth. I have four kids who range in age from 17-11. They all are proficient readers who have been known on occasion to rave about a book they read. But do any of them reach for a book without at least a little cajoling from yours truly: they do not.  Another tip from the so-called experts is to create a literature-rich environment.  I am the queen of literature-rich environments. When they were small, I labeled furniture and household objects with bold, clear lettering so they could get used to seeing and trying to decode the written word. We made letter sounds and spent hours upon hours reading together. I had library parties for the neighborhood kids complete

  I realize I'm posting this late...I'm in the weeds of editing my novel so that is taking up most of my writing time. But I wanted to get my April reads up before the end of May so here we go! April was busy, but I managed to do a lot of reading. It seems I was drawn to dense books (four of these titles are over four hundred pages). That slows me down a little but also makes me a bit more selective in the quality of the books I read.  Do you like long books? For me, there are times I want to dive deep into a story and get lost for days, and other times I need short chapters and quick reads.  Here's what I read in April 1. The Appeal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Have you heard about this one? A few trusted sources posted about it and I was all in. The Appeal is a mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie told through emails, texts, and other media. The story centers on a theater troupe in England and it was great reading on rainy, chilly spring days.  The plot was tight, but I did feel like it w