Growing up in un-air-conditioned houses in the Deep South limited afternoon activities. Growing up in a one-car family limited mobility. Growing up with a stay-at-home mother and an increasing number of siblings stretched a government employee's salary. Growing up while moving 17 times in the first 16 years of my parents' marriage limited friends and family time.

Each afternoon, my mom revealed the world's magic through a 1937 My Book House collection of nursery rhymes, poems, and short stories. Like my grandparents who read these books to their three sons, my wife and I read to our twin sons.