Give The Kids What They Want

When I was a kid, I was read to by my parents. We had all the Dr. Seus books, I swear they were worn down and weathered by the time we had the house fire.

After we moved, we were still given books but, as far as school went, I hum-de-da'd my way through their library and found a few good books. Then I discovered great books. Then came High School...where textbooks sounded like their writers were on Vicodin or something.

I only remember two books they made us read. Black Boy and Run, Baby, Run.

I never finished Black Boy. I couldn't connect with it.

Run, Baby, Run was a true account of a gang member. I already knew to stay away from gangs so the entire book to me goes without saying.

I had to discover great books on my own. Like Catcher in The Rye, The Invisible Man, Into The Wild, The War of The Worlds, The Most Dangerous Game, Jumper, Johnathan Livingston Seagull, Catch-22.

Luckily, I already had a passion for reading so I sought out books for myself to read, without anyone guiding me. I read classic young adult novels.

But some are not so lucky.

Lowest literacy rate is in the country of Mali - 26 percent.

The highest is Andorra - 100 percent.

United states has 99 percent.

But I heard that Rhode Island has the lowest literacy rate of all. Their literacy rate is 27.3 percent.

It's true that our country needs to bump up in areas like science and math but I believe that reading is the most important one of all. If a child does not get inducted into reading with some good books under his belt, then there is very little you can do.

But, there is one website I support.

James Patterson has made one. Even thought I don't particularly like his writing style, he has made a way for parents to find out exactly what books their kids need by making lists of young adult classics through ages 1 to 10.

If you really want your kids to be smarter, happier and critical thinkers then give the kids what they want.

Go here - Read Kiddo Read to find out more. Who knows, maybe you can brush up on a couple of childhood classics you missed during your youth.

The Pitter-Patter of Patterson

James Patterson has written over 70 books. He releases two to three books a year and I've always seen his books on the endcaps in the book department of every grocery store you can think of. It helps that he comes from an ad marketing background. He was the one who coined the phrase, "I wanna be a Toys-R-Us kid." His stories know no boundaries. He's written fantasy, young adult, adult dramas, adult crime thrillers and a couple of non-fiction books. I admire this guy's zeal, even though I haven't read anything from him.

What's interesting to know is that even though a portion of his works aren't well liked, he continues to outsell both Stephen King and John Grisham together. I haven't read one full book by him but when I do, I'm going to make sure it's one that I know I will like such as Sunday's at Tiffany's or The Witch and The Wizard or The Dangerous Days of Daniel X.

But I think one important thing to take from Mr. Patterson's writing is that he is not stopping. He's written so many, he's become a household name, like it or not. That got me thinking, if you write enough you will gain more publicity and more recognition whether the work is garbage or not. Being a writer is a risk anyway. Sometimes you get a hit and sometimes you don't. But just keep writing. We already view each piece of work as our babies so why not be fruitful and mutiply.

For more in depth information on James Patterson's writing process, take a look at this interesting article by The New York Times:

James Patterson Inc.

"Don't be 'a writer'. Be writing." — William Faulkner