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My Amazing Connection to Author Jan Pierce: What I Wish all Parents Knew

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by Holly Michael in Books, Christianity, Guest Author, Guest Blogger, Inspiration

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2015 Wold Book Day, Angels, Best book to help children learn to read, Bestseller, bestselling Author Jan Pierce, Children, Help a child learn to read, Helping Kids Read, Holly Michael, Homegrown Readers, India, Jan Pierce, Miracles, reading, Roger Pierce, Simple Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Read, Tsunami, tsunami 2004

Alone in a foreign country, with my husband in a third world ICU suffering multiple organ failure, God summoned his angels. They are the Pierces: Jan and Roger.

Homegrown Readers coverToday, Jan Pierce is a guest on my blog. She will share her secrets about inspiring children to love to read. Jan is a retired teacher and freelance writer who specializes in writing about education, parenting and family life topics. She is the author of the newly-released book, Homegrown Readers: Simple Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Read

Last November, when my husband contracted dengue fever from a mosquito bite, I’d only known Jan vaguely as an author friend on Facebook. During our crisis in India, my only means of communication was via a hospital computer. I got on Facebook and asked for prayers.

Jan Pierce saw my message. Her husband Roger was in India, in Bengaluru, where we were. Deciphering my sporadic messages, the couple discovered our location.

A few days later, Roger stepped into the hospital room. With happy tears upon seeing my husband alive and well, he told us that God had prompted him to pray with fervency. He’d spent countless hours interceding before the Lord for us. Roger had never met us before, but we all held hands and prayed in that hospital room, so far from home. We were all overwhelmed at this amazing connection…

Because of God…

Because of prayers…

Because of…yes, Facebook…

…my husband recovered and I am able to introduce Jan Pierce to you, a wonderful talented compassionate author with a heart for India and a heart for helping kids learn to read.

I’m handing over my blog to Jan. And what’s really cool about her post today is that today March 5th, is UNESCO’s World Book Day. A celebration that encourages children to read. To celebrate, Here’s JAN!!!!!

Thanks, Holly. God is amazing and I am grateful for your husband’s recovery and for your welcoming me here today to talk about What I Wish All Parents Knew…

Jan-137acrop1

Today’s busy families are hard pressed to give their children everything they need. Schedules are packed. Kids join soccer and T-ball teams. Families enjoy the outdoors together camping and hiking. Parents take time to teach their children basic kindness and manners, but they often wait to get into that book learning, the reading and writing stuff, until their children enter school.

But here’s the thing. Reading is really important. Virtually all learning takes place through the written word. Children who haven’t been read to, who haven’t listened to fairy tales, poems, tales of curious monkeys and books about real animals, kids who aren’t familiar with books and what’s inside them–these kids are at a disadvantage when they go to school.

The solution is simple. Read to your children. Even if you had unhappy experiences in your own learning to read years, the price of entering school without lots of experience with books is too high. Kids soon learn that the other children know what’s going on. They don’t. They’ve just begun their school career and already feel like a failure.

Reading aloud to children is, ideally, a wonderful thing. It can be the ritual before naps and bedtimes. It can be what the family does on Saturday mornings while they eat their pancakes. Sharing favorite stories should be a positive experience for the whole family. If that isn’t the case, something needs to change. If reading isn’t enjoyable to you as the parent, suck it up and do it anyway. (You’ll change your mind.)

Regular read aloud times should be part of the family schedule. Let children choose some of the titles. Read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books and don’t forget that maps, comic books, the Sunday comic strips and even instruction manuals are all reading materials. It’s never too late to start because it’s just that important to success in school.

When your children enter kindergarten let them be the kids who have heard at least five hundred stories. Let them be the ones who understand that stories have characters and settings and plots. Let them know which way is up on a page and that writing goes from left to right. Teach them to love books and reading. Your reward? A happy, successful reader.

Holly: Thanks for that message Jan, could you share a little more about your background.

Sure, I’m a wife, mother and grandma to three terrific grandsons. I retired eight years ago from a long career in education. I taught all grades from kindergarten through fourth grade, but mainly taught first and second grade, so I had ample time to teach children to read. I earned a reading endorsement when I got my Master’s degree because I wanted to understand more about the nuts and bolts of reading. I spent the last two years of my career as a reading specialist.

When I retired, I determined to stay active and soon realized I had two new “jobs.” One involves Teams India, the NGO my husband and I founded to do missions work in India. The second is I became a freelance writer. I’d never published a thing before 2007, but soon found that I love the challenge and everything related to the writer’s life.

And getting involved in the writing life is what brought Jan and I together on Facebook. Isn’t this an amazing connection? And my blog is all about connections.

Holly: Before you go, Jan. I really want to stress the benefits a parent will get from reading your book? Can you tell us how it will help parents and their children?

Sure. Any parent who wants their child to gain reading skills in English will benefit from the information in this book. It’s important that parents understand English is not a highly phonetic language and because of that children need more than phonics to read well. They need to use thinking strategies to find the meaning in a text. If they read the words perfectly, but don’t understand the meaning, they haven’t really read. All the strategies they need to solve reading problems are found in Homegrown Readers.Homegrown Readers cover

And below are links to Jan’s site and to purchase her book: Homegrown Readers: Simple Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Read

CONNECT WITH JAN: Website: www.janpierce.net and www.onehandfulofrice.org / Facebook author page / Jan’s Amazon author page / Linked In / Pinterest

Amazon.com to buy Jan’s Book /  To purchase Jan’s Book from Barnes and Noble

Beautiful beach and seaHolly: If you’d like to hear more about our drama-filled visit to Tsunami-devastated Nagapattinam in our “then and now” book, Tsunami 2004 – Still Wading Through Waves of Hope, click here. The nonfiction book takes a look back at our visit ten years ago and our return trip this last November and the challenges and surprises we encountered. It also chronicles the lives of several orphans.

But, first, I urge you, parents, teachers, aunts, uncles grab Jan’s book from the links above. It’s a must for any one who cares about helping a child they love learn to read!

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Joining East to West: Readers with Authors in Growing Christian Market

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Holly Michael in Best Web Sites for Writers, Book Marketing, Books, Christianity, India, Writing

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ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers, best site for christian fiction, Blog, book lovers, books, Caryl McAdoo, Christian Fiction, Christian Novels, Christianity India, Crooked Lines, e-readers, fiction, Holly Michael, India, Indias crown, Indias crown in Christian Literature Excellence, Literature, Novels, reading, Renjit Varghese, South India, Vow Unbroken, Writing, www.writingstraight.com

More Christians in India than ever before have their heads bowed low these days. Praying? Maybe, but also reading on their smart phones and tablets. The popularity of E-readers and apps for enjoying books on smart phones and tablets has increased readership in India, especially in larger cities and among college students.

After researching and speaking with Christian pastors in India, authors, and a barrage of voracious book lovers, it became clear that excellent Christian literature and clean fiction is in huge demand in the East.

“People from India want to read and learn about the Western world,” says Shilpa Joshi, a Christian from Bangalore. “We want to explore places like Texas and reading about these places in novels takes us there, but I rarely come across such books.”

During a visit to India last year, browsing large Christian bookstores, I found mostly self-help and spiritual non-fiction books written mainly by Indian authors. I did come across a few nonfiction titles by big names such as Joyce Meyer and Joel Olsteen, but found almost zero Christian novels.

Renjit Varghese, a Christian from Kerala, South India lives in Kansas City now. He says that readership is growing among Indians due to the lower cost of ebooks. “But Christian books are difficult to find in India,” says Varghese. “Even more rare is fiction written by American authors. “When I go back home to Kerala, I take books back with me for my family.”

Seeing the need to connect Christian authors in the West with readers in the East, Authors Caryl McAdoo and I (Both members of American Christian Fiction Writers – AFCW) began a website: www.indiascrown.com. The full name of this premier site is India’s Crown in Christian Literature Excellence (ICICLE). symbolice

The website will feature American Christian authors with books marketed in India through Amazon and other sources. Each author featured will also give away a copy of their book to a reader from India.

icicle2

“ICICLE is a place where authors and readers can also connect,” Caryl Mcadoo, Author of Vow Unbroken, reiterated. “It surprised me to discover a few years ago that people all over the world love Texas. My historical Christian romance—reviewers have told me I should add western adventure to my genre—Vow Unbroken is set in 1832 Texas, so I am excited about the untapped market in India. And while it’s nice to sell more books, I’m more excited with the aspect of meeting Indian Christians and making friends across the ocean. With Christ in common, we can minister to one another and see that God is doing wonderful things in other places.”

So….Caryl and I are off and running on a well-thought out and massive campaign to bring awareness of www.indiascrown.com to India to fill this niche with literary minded Christians working on both sides of the ocean. It is time now to welcome authors to contact us about promoting their book. We are filling our calendars now. We are thrilled to be wide open to Indy titles, but do want to read them ahead of time to ensure the excellence in Christian Literature we advertise.

It is this assurance that will catapult India’s Crown into the organization we believe God wants it to be. Visit the site and contact us with any questions.

Get ready Christian authors in the US! Indian readers want your books! And what a platform God has given us to spread the Gospel through our Christian Fiction.

India’s Crown in Christian Literature Excellence (ICICLE)

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Books that Shape a Child’s Life

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by Holly Michael in Books, Guest Blogger

≈ 31 Comments

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averageus.com, Blog, books, Books to Share a Child's Life, children's books, Holly Michael, http://averageus.com, Lon Hetrick, reading, reading to children, www.writingstraight.com, YA books

Yoohoo! Moms & Dads with children of all ages, Grandmas & Grandpas, Aunts & Uncles, expecting parents & children who can read! Hey EVERYBODY! Lon Hetrick is here! And he’s talking about:

“Books that Shape a Child’s Life”

Don’t know Lon Hetrick? Oh my, then today is your lucky day! C’mon. Pull up a chair. Lon, and his wife, Dawn, blog over at Average Us.

Their blog’s about: an average Christian couple whose thoughts on spiritual life and emotional health reflect our belief that God is great, even when life isn’t.

They claim to be an average Christian couple, but their blog is anything but average. You’ll see what I mean. So…with great honor, zeal, and mucho gusto, I present Lon:

 “When you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your life does.”  — Kathleen Kelly, played by Meg Ryan in the 1998 film, You’ve Got Mail

Anyone who read a book as a child, or was read to as a child, knows this is true. Childhood books shape our imagination and inspire our dreams of who we want to be: adventurous, noble, wise, kind, brave, strong, or funny.

It’s because of this that my wife and I made it a point to read to each of our three children during their early years. As Christian parents, we wanted to shape their lives with a love for God, people, life, family and learning.

We chose classic books, average books, and books we just plain liked from our own childhood. It didn’t matter much if a book was really on their level or not; they simply enjoyed the read-n-cuddle time with Dad or Mom, and learned a lot as we explained concepts, vocabulary, and story lines. (I think our oldest was only four when I read Peter Pan to him.)

Books We Read to Our Kids

Here’s a selection of the books that shaped my kids (not in any particular order, nor in proper bibliographic form), and I recommend them to any parent.

  • Anything by Dr. Seuss — no one does silly-talk funner or betterer 😉
  • The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis — My kids loved these allegorical tales and they provide lots of opportunities for God-centered conversation.
  • Out of the Silent Plant, Lewis
  • Perelandra, Lewis – Believe it or not, this sci-fi take on the nature of evil provided a fascinating opportunity to discuss human sinfulness with my kids.
  • The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Beverly Cleary — my childhood favorite
  • The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White
  • The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
  • The Call of the Wild, Jack London
  • The Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English — I scheduled regular time to read and teach this wonderful summary of the Christian faith. No regrets.
  • The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien — another childhood favorite
  • A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin
  • Dinotopia series — James Gurney. These are beautifully illustrated.
  • The King Without A Shadow — Christian allegory by R.C. Sproul
  • The Priest With Dirty Clothes — same as above, a wonderful explanation of the biblical teaching on the atonement Christ accomplished.
  • Plus these well-known titles: The Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Stewart Little, Charlotte’s Web, Robin Hood, Pilgrim’s Progress (child’s version), Peter Pan

Books Our Kids Read to Us

In later years, our kids took to reading to the family during road trips. A good book makes the drive between Minneapolis and Atlanta go a lot faster! Here are a few that we enjoyed as a family.

  • The Gideon Trilogy, Linda Buckley Archer — British kids time travel to the past and meet up with bad guys  (cool!)
  • The Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan
  • The Hunger Games series, Suzanne Collins — yes, we read them before we knew there would be a movie 😉
  • The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling

Books We Want Our Kids to Read

I also give each of our kids a few books as High School graduation gifts (two down, one to go!). These books are gifts from my heart and represent my fatherly hopes for how they might understand the world and their place in it, how they might live life well, and find God ever-present and faithful in it.

  • Behind a Frowning Providence, John Murray — a short pamphlet dealing with suffering and God’s providential guidance of His world. Everyone suffers sooner or later, and I wanted my kids to know how to trust God’s fatherly care when the time comes.
  • Science and Evolution, Chuck Colson — an enlightening investigation of the Creation/Evolution debate.
  • The Life of a God-made Man, Dan Doriani — for my son, on a Biblical view of manhood.
  • Desiring God, John Piper — the most influential modern book of my life. It’s a treatise for a biblical worldview on this theme: “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”
  • Knowing God, J. I. Packer — also 10 out of 10.
  • The Mark of a Man, Elisabeth Elliot. For my son and daughters.
  • Let Me Be a Woman, Elliot. For my daughters.

Books to Shape A Child’s Life

What should reading to a child be, after all, other than an investment of love and wisdom in a young heart and mind? Of the many ways to shape a child’s life, and build a relationship with them, the selection and reading of good books is surely among the best.

I hope some of these books will enrich the children in your life as they have ours.

What are one or two books you can recommend for shaping a child’s life?

Now, you just gotta check out Lon’s BLOG: http://averageus.com (Average Us), TWITTER: @averageus, FB: http://www.facebook.com/AverageUs

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Done this: Regular freelance ghostwriter and online editor for Guideposts for Teens/Sweet 16 Magazine, creator/editor of a magazine for Wal-Mart Corp., journalist, newspaper features writer, published in a variety of national magazines and local newspapers, script writing/editing for corporations. Doing this now: author of fiction and nonfiction, blogger, and editor of Koinonia Magazine. I’m the wife of Rt. Rev. Leo Michael, an Anglican Bishop in the Holy Catholic Church-Anglican Rite. Mom to three great kids: Nick (#81 Rajin Cajuns), Betsy (Super cute professor) and Jake (T1D & NFL player) Also, enjoy my travels extensively across the United States and internationally.

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