Reading Together: A Real, Shared Adventure

Reading is always more than it seems. What Twila Farmer so beautifully painted here is a vision of what I dream. A child receiving from a parent who is giving, but also receiving. Their imaginations are knit together. They are where they are, but are also off on a daring, shared adventure. 

The journeys we go on together in books are real. They do not happen in the same sense that an embodied journey happens, but they do happen. And they happen with our bodies. We don’t only think about what we are reading, or hearing. We feel. Our hearts race, our anxieties deepen, and our hearts swell with love and joy. It is an adventure. It is real. And it is shared. 

I feel so honored that my stories have been an avenue of adventure for many families and friends to share all over the world. The Green Ember began with rabbits hopping in an Appalachian yard and an ordinary dad telling his toddling daughter about their surprising adventures. It was our family story. Now it’s yours too. 

“We read to know that we are not alone.” William Nicholson

This is true. And it is a blessing to learn that we writers are not alone, either. I have my kids—my original audience—and I have you. And your encouragement and enthusiasm has been a life-defining catalyst for me. 

Thank you so much.

God bless and keep you ever in his love,
Sam