Moments Define My Passion for Children's Books

My handmade Steampunk doll, Sally, was a recent gift from my talented friend and Wizzley writer, Coletta. Sally arrived in my mailbox about the time I began breathing life back into my passion for books for kids. Perfect timing!

I introduced Sally to children's books and she was delighted to sit among them, so much so that she begged for a permanent position in their presence. Thrilled with Sally's enthusiasm for reading, I decided to designate her my Ruthi Reads Books for Kids Ambassador for my blog and other book-related writings, joining me in all things involving children's books and literacy for young readers.

Ambassador Sally has insisted that I review each of the seven books she first selected from my book shelf of children's books. As I do so, links to my book reviews will be shared here for you to peruse (below and in the sidebar of this web page.)

I am committed to bringing you book titles from the book shelves that you will want to read with your children to further literacy and communication and books children will have the desire to read by themselves.

• I will read and review books across all genres for children ages 0 to 12 in order to introduce you to a variety of publications from which to choose for entertainment and for learning.
• I will make it my business to know what books are popular in children's reading circles at present and bring you the best of the bunch.
• I plan to introduce you to some up-and-coming and self-published authors of kid's books.
• While I will concentrate heavily on book reviews and reading recommendations, I also plan to include items of interest to young readers and their parents and caregivers; all pertaining to reading, of course.
• I am committed to encouraging parents, grandparents, all adults in all things furthering the reading of books by children.

Validate evaluations by reading the book to be reviewed. If it has been a while since I have read the book to be reviewed, I make sure to give it a quick re-reading to refresh my memory of its storyline, characters, and lessons. Often I am surprised when new meaning is derived from reading a book one more time.

When the task at hand is to write a critique of a book in hand I busy myself with reading the book from an analytical point of view in order to assess its content. I may also research the author in order to discover clues to determine the author's intended message within the writing, if the book appears not to be just for pure pleasure.

I always write an honest appraisal of book and author - my personal opinion, of course, as we each respond to a piece of literature from our own perspective.

I trust you can tell how excited I am about bringing your opinion of a book into public view. When it becomes apparent that you are nearly as enthusiastic about the "Books For Kids" mission as I am, you can rest assured that I shall rave about your work to bring great books into the hands of children across the globe.