Some of my earliest memories are surrounded by reading, beautiful pictures, and family; which in my household always seemed to go together! I'll never forget the first book I read all on my own; it was an early reader book about a little girl who was learning to rollerskate. I remember sitting in the children's section of  Barnes and Nobel with my mom and being so excited about how the words were coming together to create a new story.  Reading was always a family affair in my home. Both my parents and sister had libraries that would put the Beauty and the Beast library to shame, and I followed right in their steps with my own collection of the books, filling my room with beautiful pictures and stories. Before I was able to read on my own, one of my favorite evening traditions was snuggling up with my Dad in our library chair and reading a book out of the Bearinstein Bears collection. We would read about bike rides, honey hunts, dinosaur mysteries, and family picnics; always laughing about the shenanigans that Papa Bear would get his family into. My dad would read aloud and pause every few words to help me practice filling in the words, at the time we had read our favorites so many times that I could recite from memory without even looking at the letters, but it was a wonderful practice that helped me along my journey of falling in love with literature.