Ms. Maggie Myre’s 4th grade classroom at Scandia Elementary pictured with Christine Maefsky, Mayor of Scandia.

At my request, I did presentations to seven individual 3^rd and 4^th grade classrooms of students rather than in a larger assembly. Also at my request, their teachers helped the students prepare questions in advance.

After my formal 20-minute presentation about reading, writing, and publishing books for young readers, I opened it up for questions.

I’m sure that I answered at least 15 to 20 prepared and spontaneous questions in each of the seven sessions, some the same, many different.

I was impressed by the students’ astute and thoughtful questions. But I also surprised myself when my answers spontaneously released discoveries that I’ve made as a writer over the past twenty years.

Here is an unstructured, slightly random list of some of the thoughts I shared with these young readers and aspiring writers. In essence, they represent the essential core of what I’ve learned as I’ve studied and practiced the craft.

• “If you remember only one thing I say today, I hope it is this: You are unique. There is not now, nor will there ever be, another person just like you.”
• Inside each of you is a story that needs to be told and you are the one to tell it. The only one.
• Write what you know: playing a French horn, being on a hockey team, being an older sister, starting over in a new school.
• Your subconscious—what you know, but didn’t know you knew—will guide you to the emotional heart of your story, if you just let it.
• A story starts with a single spark of the imagination.
• The power of your imagination is infinite, without beginning or end.
• To write a story is to revise a story, over and over again.
• A book is never complete until it is read. It is you—the reader—who finishes the story with your own imagination.
• Writing a book is like doing a 1000-piece puzzle without an illustration on the cover of the puzzle box.

• I use my imagination to create fictional characters (human or animal) that combine what I know about myself with the traits of three others that I’ve known.
• Writers are readers. Why? For my answer I paraphrased one of my favorite quotes about reading by Esther Porter: Your brain files away lesson after lesson all on its own. Reading great books can answer your revision questions, even if you’re unaware of what you’re looking for. We pick up stylistic tools and techniques, we develop our sense of linguistic rhythm, we even become better spellers when we read. And when we return to our writing, we do so with a more complete tool best, with the ability to fix problems we couldn’t see before.
• When writing fiction, keep this in mind: Only trouble is interesting.
• William Faulkner said: The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.
• Sometimes a writer’s first idea is not the best idea. The pieces of the puzzle don’t fit. The plot threads won’t come together. You can’t find its emotional center. Be prepared to start over.

“Sometimes a writer’s first idea is not the best idea. … Be prepared to start over.”

• Writing a book is difficult.
• Our stories—my stories, your stories—are hidden, like secrets in the attics of our own lives.
• The characters for your stories are all around you.
• Writing IS revision.
• Bringing a book into the world is a team effort; the author is no longer in control.
• You learn how to write a book by writing a book.

The next three hours, which I spent with Sneha Saxena, Development Officer, and Lisa Miller, Senior Development Officer, of the HCMC Hennepin Health Foundation; and Lynne Burke, Department of Pediatrics Children’s Literacy Liaison, proved to be one of the most personally gratifying experiences of the past year—a year in which I’ve been plagued by multiple health issues related to Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. After struggling with the hidden symptoms of this “invisible” disease for more than 20 years, trust me when I say, “Sometimes reading is the best medicine.” (Creative writing helps as well.)

(from l to r) Chanon Ridore, Nurse Practitioner, author Eileen Beha, and Lynne Burke, HCMC Children’s Literature Liaison

Sneha, Lisa and Lynne, along with members of HCMC’s pediatric staff, gave generously of their time and talents as they shared with me the mission and values of the Children’s Literacy Programs and Projects. Simply stated, the programs connect children with books because literacy experiences are critical to a child’s healthy development. While the primary focus is on their patients and child visitors, members of their team also work in the community to bring kids and books together.

During my visit, I learned that 30,000 books are given away at HCMC and its clinics every year. The total number of books distributed to children since the program’s inception (2002) is 200,000!

The three major program components are:

~ Books for Babies in the nursery

~ Reach Out and Read in early childhood

~ Book Buddies for all ages.

Many of the books are multi-lingual: English, Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Oromo, French, and Russian. HCMC’s Children’s Literacy Program seems to be a perfect example of why we need diverse books, why every story matters, and how stories connect us.

How did I find out about the program? Through a friend named Jean who coordinates a “knitting ministry” for HCMC patients. Among the items her church group donates are baby hats for newborns and oversized mittens for the bandaged hands of burn victims. When I told Jean that I’d always hoped to put my books into the hands of children in need of healing, Jean gave me Sneha Saxena’s email address. Within an hour of receiving my email, Sneha responded with a personal phone call to my home. Our connection was made.

I share this experience on-line because I know that there are so many people—children’s and young adult book authors, booksellers, librarians, teachers, parents, grandparents, book lovers of all kinds—who know from first-hand experience that children who read lead healthier lives.

If you, or someone you know, might be interested in becoming involved with the HCMC Children’s Literacy Program, learn more at: www.hcmc.org/read. And, if you would like to help the program meet its goal of giving away their 250,000th book sometime in 2015, contact Sneha Saxena: sneha.saxena@hcmed.org or Lynne Burke: lynne.burke@hcmed.org.

Or, if you live in the Twin Cities area and would like to add some of your favorite, new, non-religious children’s and young adult books to those that I’ll be donating on April 17th, send me an email: eileenbeha@tango.com. I’ll make arrangements to either pick up the books or I’ll give you my home address in south Minneapolis, where you can drop your books in a covered plastic bin that I’ll leave next to my front door. (If you want a tax donation receipt, it’s best to make your book or financial donation directly.)

These days, as I read my way through a stack of high-quality books for young readers, I like to visualize a particular book in the hands of a hospitalized or chronically ill child. Then I add the title to my list of books I plan to donate in the future, feeling just a little bit more like my younger and healthier self.

“The right book at the right time impacts many lives.”

~ Lynne Burke, HCMC Children’s Literature Liaison