Hurricane Branch Library’s Meet the Author Series - If you’ve ever wondered what becomes of orphaned children around the world, you will get some answers and possibly share the emotions evoked in John M. Simmons’ new book The Marvelous Journey Home. John Simmons who lives with his wife and nine children in Kamas, Utah, a small mountain valley about 35 miles east of Salt Lake City, shares his experiences in this novel which is based on actual events. John Simmons will be at the Hurricane Branch Library Saturday, August 23 at 1:00 p.m. to discuss his book and sign autographs. This event is free to the public. 

The Marvelous Journey Home has received outstanding reviews and several prestigious awards including the LDS Living Editor’s Pick, Best of State, Book of the Month from BookReview.com, the Top Ten Lists from Myshelf.com, and Audio of the Month from The Audiobook News Service. 

The book is described by the publisher as a remarkable story of parents and children coming together, and is based on the author’s experiences . . . with scenes situated from orphanages in small, remote Russian villages, to Moscow, and finally back to America. . . The reader is taken on a journey around the world, home again, and eventually, even far beyond. It is filled with hope and disappointment, love and loss, happiness and despair, and draws the reader along by their heartstrings to an unexpected destination. Home is found in distant places, peace is found in unlikely circumstances, and family is always what matters most.

John Simmons expresses his sentiments for his book by saying, “May you always experience at least a little sadness, but also unspeakable joy, when you witness a father and his child embarking on their marvelous journey home. If you cry, shed only tears of happiness. Grieve only for those who are left behind.”

From Isolation to Destination, first published in 1996, in a second printing and is now available in bookstore, Local authors, Douglas Alder and Karl Brooks collaborated to trace the history of the county from ancient times to the coming of the Mormon settlers in the 1850’s. It includes the founding of St. George, chronicling the determination of the early settlers, the isolation and the more recent boom times in which Dixie has been transformed. The book examines the challenge of managing the growth while preserving the beauty of the surprisingly fragile land.

Read Aloud

To Your Child
And Give Success For Life

5 Reasons Why you should read aloud to your child.

1. Research has established that the most significant activity that will give a child the knowledge necessary for success is reading aloud.
2. Reading aloud to your child entertains, while informing and explaining, reasures and arouses cuiorsity.
3. Conditions your child to associate reading with pleasure.
4. Creates background knowledge.
5. Provides a reading role model for your child.

What To Read

Use Mother Goose rhymes and songs to stimulate an infant’s language and listening. Simple black and white illustrations at first, and then boldly colored picture books arouse children’s curiosity and visual sense.With infants through toddlers, it is critically important to include in your readings those books that contain repetitions; as they mature, add predictable books.
Start with picture books, with only a few sentences on the page, then gradually move to books with more and more text, fewer pictures, and then to chapter books and novels.
Picture books can be read easily to a family of children widely separated in age. Novels, however, pose a challenge. If there are more than two years between the children (and thus social and emotional differences), each child would benefit greatly if you read to him or her individually. This requires more effort on the part of the parents but it will reap rewards in direct proportion to the effort expended. You will reinforce the specialness of each
Vary the length and subject matter of your readings.
Get suggestions from the librarin in the childrens section at your local library.

When to Read

1. Start reading to your child as soon as possible. The younger you start them, the easier and better it is.
2. Read as often as you and your child has time for.
Set aside at least one regular reading time each day for a story.
3. Arrange for time each day, for your child to read by himself (even if “read” only means turning pages and looking at the pictures). All your read-aloud motivation goes for naught if the time is not available to put it into practice.

WhereTo Read

In reading a novel, position yourself where both you and the children are comfortable. Follow the suggestion of Dr. Caroline Bauer and post a reminder sign by your door: “Don’t Forget Your Flood Book.” Analogous to emergency rations in case of natural disasters, these books should be taken along in the car, or even stored like spares in the trunk. A few chapters from “flood” books can be squeezed into traffic jams on the way to the beach or long waits at the dentist’s office.

Who Should Read

Always have a supply of books for the babysitter to share with the child and make it understood that “reading aloud” comes with the job, long before the TV is used.
Encourage older children to read to younger ones, but make this a part-time, not a full-time substitution for you. Remember: the adult is the ultimate role model.
Fathers should make an extra effort to read to their children. Because the vast majority of primary-school teachers are women, young boys often associate reading with women and schoolwork. And just as unfortunate, too many fathers would rather be seen playing catch in the driveway with their sons than taking them to the library. It is not by chance that most of the students in U.S. remedial-reading classes are boys. A father’s early involvement with books and reading can do much to elevate books to at least the same status as sports in a boy’s estimation.
Grandparents should have approiate books on hand and reading should be a regular part of all visits.

How To Read

Try to be familiar with a book before you read it so you will read it well. If you know what’s going on, you can be more expressive and can point out interesting things in the illustrations.
Start by looking at the cover. Be sure to read the name of the author and illustrator. See if the child can predict what’s going to happen in the story based on the cover.
Read slowly and be expressive. Using different voices and tones keeps the child interested.
Be sure to give the child plenty of time to look at the illustrations. Talk about what’s going on in the pictures.
Ask the children to participate. They like to play an active role by doing things like turning the pages, making sound effects, and saying or chanting the repeating lines.
During repeat readings of a predictable book, occasionally stop at one of the key words or phrases and allow the listener to provide the word.
Don’t feel that you have to read every single word. Sometimes the child is too young for long paragraphs or is feeling distracted.
To encourage involvement, invite the child to turn pages for you when it is time.
Before you begin to read, always say the name of the book, the author, and illustrator — no matter how many times you have read the book.
The first time you read a book, discuss the illustration on the cover. “What do you think this is going to be about?”
As you read, if you sense the audience’s attention drifting, gain them back by asking, “What do you think is going to happen next?”
.Occasionally read above children’s intellectual level and challenge their minds.
Allow your listeners a few minutes to settle down and adjust their feet and minds to the story. If it’s a novel, begin by asking what happened when you left off yesterday. Mood is an important factor in listening. An authoritarian “Now stop that and settle down! Sit up straight. Pay attention” doesn’t create a receptive atmosphere.
Allow time discussion after reading a story. Thoughts, hopes, fears, and discoveries are aroused by a book. Allow them to surface and help the child to deal with them through verbal, written, or artistic expression if the child is so inclined. Do not turn discussions into quizzes or insist upon prying story interpretations from the child.

Read With Expression

Remember that reading aloud comes naturally to very few people. To do it successfully and with ease you must practice.
Use plenty of expression when reading. If possible, change your tone of voice to fit the dialogue.
Adjust your pace to fit the story. During a suspenseful part, slow down, and lower your voice. A lowered voice in the right place moves an audience to the edge of its chairs.
The most common mistake in reading aloud — whether the reader is a seven-year-old or a forty-year-old — is reading too fast. Read slowly enough for the child to build mental pictures of what he just heard you read. Slow down enough for the children to see the pictures in the book without feeling hurried. Reading quickly allows no time for the reader to use vocal expression.
.Preview the book by reading it to yourself ahead of time. Such advance reading allows you to spot material you may wish to shorten, eliminate, or elaborate on.
Avoid long descriptive passages until the child’s imagination and attention span are capable of handling them. There is nothing wrong with shortening or eliminating them. Prereading helps to locate such passages and they can then be marked with pencil in the margin.
Add a third dimension to the book whenever possible. For example: have a bowl of blueberries ready to be eaten during or after the reading of Robert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal; bring a harmonica and a lemon to class before reading McCloskey’s Lentil.
Every once in a while, when a child asks a question involving the text, make a point of looking up the answer in a reference book with the child. This greatly expands a child’s knowledge base and nurtures library skills.
Create a wall chart or back-of-the-bedroom-door book chart so the child or class can see how much has been read; images of caterpillars, snakes, worms, and trains work well for this purpose, with each link representing a book. Similarly, post a world or U.S. wall map where small stickers can be attached to locations where your books have occurred.
Reluctant readers or unusually active children frequently find it difficult to just sit and listen. Paper, crayons, and pencils allow them to keep their hands busy while listening. (You doodle while talking on the telephone, don’t you?)

Lead by example. Make sure your children see you reading for pleasure other than at read-aloud time. Share with them your enthusiasm for whatever you are reading.

When children wish to read to you, it is better for the book to be too easy than too hard. Regulate the amount of time children spend in front of the television. Research shows that after about ten TV hours a week, a child’s school scores begin to drop. Excessive television viewing is habit-forming and damaging to a child’s development.
When children are watching television, closed-captioning should be activated along with sound. But for older children who know how to read but are lazy about it, turn the volume off and captioning on.

Do Not

Don’t read stories that you don’t enjoy yourself.
Don’t continue reading a book once it is obvious that it was a poor choice.
Don’t overwhelm your listener. Never read above a child’s emotional level.
Don’t select a book that many of the children already have heard or seen on television. Once a novel’s plot is known, much of their interest is lost. In choosing novels for reading aloud, avoid books that are heavy with dialogue; they are difficult reading aloud and listening.
Don’t start reading if you are not going to have enough time to do it justice. Having to stop after one or two pages only serves to frustrate, rather than stimulate, the child’s interest in reading.
Don’t get too comfortable while reading. A reclining or slouching position is most apt to bring on drowsiness.
Don’t be unnerved by questions during the reading, particularly from very young children. There is no time limit for reading a book but there is a time limit on a child’s inquisitiveness. Foster that curiosity with patient answers — then resume your reading.
Don’t impose interpretations of a story upon your child. A story can be just plain enjoyable, no reason necessary. The highest literacy gains occur with children who have access to discussions following a story
Don’t confuse quantity with quality. Reading to your child for ten minutes, given your full attention and enthusiasm, may very well last longer in the child’s mind than two hours of solitary television viewing.
Don’t use the book as a threat — “If you don’t pick up your room, no story tonight!” As soon as your child sees that you’ve turned the book into a weapon, they’ll change their attitude about books from positive to negative.
Don’t try to compete with television. If you say, “Which do you want, a story or TV?” they will usually choose the latter. Since you are the adult, you choose. “The television goes off at eight-thirty in this house. If you want a story before bed, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine, too. But no television after eight-thirty.” But don’t let books appear to be responsible for depriving the children of viewing time.

The world holds no secrets for the person that can read.