It was my good fortune to experience a childhood where adults in the family took time at least once a week to read aloud to us. Sometimes mother would recite poetry, and sometimes my grandmother would read story books that we children enjoyed hearing but which were slightly above our own reading level. The stories were made even more enjoyable because Grandma was quite brilliant in portraying the special voice qualities of the different characters in the stories. I always looked forward to reading night and was always disappointed when it was over. I actually enjoyed these sessions more than when we all would huddle around the radio to hear our favorite game shows such as "The 64,000 Dollar Question" and "Art Linkletter," or mysteries like "The Shadow," "The Whistler" and "I Was a Communist For the FBI. But on Saturdays I think at that young age I actually preferred the kid shows like "Lets Pretend," "The Buster Brown Show" and "Little Orphan Annie" to our read aloud nights.
Time changes things. Some changes are good and some are, unfortunately, not so good. I think the loss of the kind of quality family time we shared when I was growing up is one of the unfortunate changes
I have been working to help restore the tradition of reading aloud to children by creating special stories and poems that are meant to be read aloud. Some of these you will find in my books and on this web site. However, all I can do is create the stories and make them available. It is still up to the adult readers to find a way to read them aloud to the children of today.
I also have tried to go the extra mile by providing a place for a variety of writers and poets of the new millennium to express their creativity. It is my desire, as this e-zine matures, that my readers are introduced to interviews and works by authors and poets who are not so well-known by other media.
There is so much great talent of all genre today, that it is beyond the scope of this online magizine to include the whole gamut. For that reason and in keeping with the afore stated purpose of this website, I will be limiting the scope of the variety of works published here.
That is to say that the omission of a work or author does not imply that we do not appreciate his talent or his literary contribution. It may just not fit into our agenda for this website. With that in mind, we welcome contributions from all writers who feel they have something to contribute to the special genre of read-aloud stories and poems. You may email your submissions to londiscarpenter@peoplepc.com. And if someone other than me has written an article, I'll be sure to include your byline at the bottom of the article. This article contributed by Londis Carpenter. |
