As a child, Rachel Ledbetter was entranced within the emerald green pages of “Goodnight Moon.” Through the scenes of small kittens, strewn gloves and a sowing rabbit, Ledbetter found a soothing calmness with the turning of each page.
During her early childhood, Ledbetter was able utilize her imagination and creativity by acting as the narrator for the books she pretended to read. Through a rollercoaster of intonation and created words, Ledbetter was allowed the freedom to dictate the world within the emerald pages of “Goodnight Moon.”
“I could just do what I wanted per say and it was still reading in my own way, and that instilled in me a sense of enjoyment. So, I learned to love it, because there was a freedom in it,” Ledbetter said.
The ability for children to “read” whatever words they wish to read lets them grow confidently in their language acquisition and reach academic milestones, according to Ledbetter.
Ledbetter is the manager of the Reach Out and Read program for the Waco Family Health Center. Within the last three years, the program has administered 21,000 books to patients ranging from 6 months to 5 years old.
Her favorite books serve as both nostalgic reminders for the mother and valuable teachings for the youth she serves. The books include “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, “Corduroy” by Don Freeman, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus”by Mo Willems and “A Box Can Be Many Things” by Dana Rau.
According to Ledbetter, books are resourceful tools for teaching lessons and equipping children with school readiness. “Goodnight Moon” teaches routine and consistency. “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” teaches that every action has a consequence. “A Box Can Be Many Things” teaches the importance of creativity.
For the mother, “Corduroy” emphasizes the beauty of one’s self-worth through the life of a stuffed teddy bear.
“It touches my ‘mama heart,’ because it teaches you to love things as they are,” Ledbetter said.
“Just because you’re missing a button doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. An imperfection doesn’t diminish you as a person.”
National Reading month (March) is over for 2020, but really every month is reading month. I couldn’t be prouder of this fine selection of Wacoans and books that matter to them. Here’s the whole list! Thank you to all the interviewees and thank you to Professor Amber Adamson and the Baylor journalism students who conducted the interviews. Looking forward to doing it again next year! Read on! — ABT
By Kathryn Herd
As a child, Rachel Ledbetter was entranced within the emerald green pages of “Goodnight Moon.” Through the scenes of small kittens, strewn gloves and a knitting rabbit, Ledbetter found a soothing calmness with the turning of each page.
During her early childhood, Ledbetter was able utilize her imagination and creativity by acting as the narrator for the books she pretended to read. Through a rollercoaster of intonation and created words, Ledbetter was allowed the freedom to dictate the world within the emerald pages of “Goodnight Moon.”
“I could just do what I wanted per say and it was still reading in my own way, and that instilled in me a sense of enjoyment. So, I learned to love it, because there was a freedom in it,” Ledbetter said.
The ability for children to “read” whatever words they wish to read lets them grow confidently in their language acquisition and reach academic milestones, according to Ledbetter.
Ledbetter is the manager of the Reach Out and Read program for the Waco Family Health Center. Within the last three years, the program has administered 21,000 books to patients ranging from 6 months to 5 years old.
Her favorite books serve as both nostalgic reminders for the mothers and valuable teachings for the youth she serves. The books include “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, “Corduroy” by Don Freeman, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” by Mo Willems and “A Box Can Be Many Things” by Dana Rau.
According to Ledbetter, books are resourceful tools for teaching lessons and equipping children with school readiness. “Goodnight Moon” teaches routine and consistency. “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” teaches that every action has a consequence. “A Box Can Be Many Things” teaches the importance of creativity.
“Corduroy” emphasizes the beauty of one’s self-worth through the life of a stuffed teddy bear.
“It touches my ‘mama heart,’ because it teaches you to love things as they are,” Ledbetter said.
“Just because you’re missing a button doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. An imperfection doesn’t diminish you as a person.”
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
“To quote my daughter’s favorite movie, Frozen 2, ‘Do the next right thing,’” Dillon Meek said.
Meek, a local lawyer and city council member, first read The Hiding Place in the 6th grade and then reread it about two years ago.
“It’s a true story, which I think makes it all the more compelling, but it reads like a fiction-adventure book about a family who chooses to do the right thing in the midst of really negative consequences,” Meek said.
The Hiding Place is an autobiography written by Corrie Ten Boom about how her family hid Jews in their watch shop in Poland during the height of Nazi power. This dangerous endeavor saved the lives of countless Jews, but resulted in the arrest and ultimately, the imprisonment of Ten Boom’s whole family. Once in the concentration camp, Ten Boom and her family were able to continue their ministry by showing the love and kindness of Christ to those around them.
“They weren’t looking to be these great figures of social justice,” Meek said. “But the war and the Holocaust happened around them, and they just responded as they believed they were required to. I think they did so lovingly and with dignity to the people around them. Obviously unafraid of the consequences to themselves, and I think ultimately carrying love completely, which I think is profound too.”
Meek said he believes that this story of hope and doing the right thing can continue to inspire people today as it shows how everyday people can choose to have a positive impact on the world around them. This is also a story of sacrifice, and Meek said this story encourages the people of Waco to ask the question of how they can have a positive impact in their world where there might be injustice around them.
“In Waco, for me specifically, there is generational poverty and I [think] there are solutions to resolving that,” Meek said. “My heart and my hope is that we can bring creative and innovative changes to our system to break generational poverty. That’s very different than responding to Nazis but it’s recognizing that there’s change, there’s positive impact in my world and so as an ordinary person, what can I do?”
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Grace Shaw
Savanna Cabrera, a student at McLennan Community College, said she believes the Nancy Drew series has impacted feminine culture today.
Cabrera said she struggled with reading growing up. When she found the Nancy Drew series, it sparked a love of reading and helped her out of her weakness.
When she was in the library one day in middle school, she found one book in the series and decided to read it. She began reading many in the series. This series motivated her to love reading and gain perspective on social constructs of societal expectations of women.
The Nancy Drew series taught Cabrera to break cultural gender stereotypes and to be “daring and courageous.”
The Nancy Drew series has influenced many women to be valiant and bold, to go out of their comfort zones, Cabrera said.
“This series is really empowering. The author truly broke the boundary for young girls,” Cabrera said. “She broke all the cultural stereotypes for what people thought a girl should be…She has inspired me to be confident in myself, be brave and daring.”
Cabrera said the protagonist in the series, Nancy Drew, taught her to be confident in middle school. It taught her to let go of her insecurities and be proud of her strengths. This series has been one that has impacted her life and who she is today. Nancy Drew has been a role model that empowered Cabrera to believe in herself.
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Brittney Matthews
Books are valued primarily for education and creativity, but local librarian Sarah Freeland values books most for the connection they provide within communities.
Books have a different impact on each individual and for Freeland the book “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery is the book that has had the biggest impact on her. It’s about Anne, a young orphan girl, who lives on Prince Edward Island and gets adopted by a family, when the family thought they were adopting a boy. Anne uses writing and storytelling to cope with the darkness in her world. In the end, the family falls in love with her. Throughout the series, the reader walks alongside Anne and her life up to adulthood.
“It really is this wonderful story of family and community,” Freeland said. “But for me, I love the way you see community connecting through story… and it’s her stories that connect people and unite them.”
Freeland said this book impacted her by connecting her to other people who had read the book. It amazed her how this book could create a common ground of understanding between two people.
“I think reading really gives you the opportunity to explore, engage with and connect with people that are different from you,” Freeland said.
Freeland encourages others to read “Anne of Green Gables” because Montgomery doesn’t shy away from the hardness of reality, while at the same time showing that there’s more than difficulty in life.
“You have that [difficulty] but you also have this sense of imagination with a positive outlook,” Freeland said. “There is opportunity for joy and wonder. That to me is really encouraging.”
As a librarian, Freeland sees firsthand how books impact people in the community. For Freeland, being a librarian means assisting people in making the connections that books create within the community and helping others grow in their love for books.
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Cole Grafton
Books have the ability to change the way the reader sees the world. For Rick Tullis, “Goodbye to a River” by John Graves helped him connect with nature and the world around him.
Tullis is the president of Capstone Mechanical, a local engineering and construction company.
“‘Goodbye to a River’ appealed to me because it’s about Texas rivers,” Tullis said. “I love rivers and love being around them or on them, and so that’s what attracted me to go and read the book.”
Tullis explained that the book was an autobiography of John Graves’ two week trip down the Brazos River, where he had spent many of his summers growing up.
“They were installing lots of dams along the river, and there were several other ones proposed at the time. So he said, ‘OK one last chance, I’m going to get in the canoe and float down the river,” Tullis said. “And he’s a great storyteller, so his book is not only about his journey down the river, but he tells kind of the history of the different parts along the way.”
Tullis then explained how the book reminded him of his own life and experiences that are similar to the adventures described by Graves.
“This book matters to me because I’ve got a little farm on the middle Bosque which flows into the Brazos, where he was. And 20 years ago with a friend of mine, I kayaked from Crawford down to Lake Waco, and it was just totally awesome,” Tullis said. “I felt like I was in a totally different part of the country. It was so beautiful.”
The similarities between the lives of Tullis and Graves have helped Tullis to see the river in a new perspective, and to better appreciate Graves’ trip down the Brazos.
“I connect with the way he sees the life on the river and … the connection to history, but also to the animals, and the plants and the life that a river brings to an area,” Tullis said. “And so I get it. I see that whenever I go out to the river myself, and I can really connect with how the author views those things.”
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Catherine Rennell
During National Reading Month, McLennan County Commissioner Pat Miller celebrates by revisiting her favorite book “Jesus and the Disinherited” by Howard Thurman.
Thurman, an author and activist of the early 20th century, wrote his 1949 book in response to the increase in segregation and racism in America. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent protests and relied on his own Christian theology to provide a message of hope for marginalized African Americans.
“He introduces the life of Jesus in parallel to the African Americans existing in America to Jesus as a Jew existing under Roman authority,” Miller said.
Miller grew up in New York and moved to the South at 10 years old. She said she experienced the Civil Rights movement and segregation in Waco through the slow integration of teaching staff at private schools and later the students themselves at public schools. Miller experienced the harsh reality of American racism that Thurman writes about in his novel. But for Miller, Thurman provides a hopeful message that has inspired and comforted her ever since she read “Jesus and the Disinherited” for the first time.
“What impressed me most was that it was coming from a Christian perspective,” Miller said. “He addresses the question of how you can embrace Christianity in light of the reality of what is perceived to be the African American’s place in America.”
Miller said she relied on Thurman’s book for guidance when running for office and that it is the most important book to her at this point in her life as county commissioner.
“What I found myself having to do, when asking people for their vote,” Miller said, “is it made me really examine my faith in the Democratic system, and America being a place where everybody can be part of the American dream. I found myself relying more and more on some of the points he made in his book.”
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Bri Boland
Linda Crawford, author of “God, Destiny, and a Glass of Wine,” shares her love of books and change-inducing stories in the Waco community and beyond.
After coming to Waco in 1989 from Georgia Southern University, Crawford began a career as an English professor and coordinator for the Integrated Reading and Writing Department at McLennan Community College.
Crawford explained how she hopes her writing will impact the lives of her readers.
“I want [the readers] to understand when they finish reading the book that you don’t just walk into that destiny that you want. You have to be specific. You have to do it on purpose,” Crawford said. “When they close that book… I want them to graduate.”
Crawford explained how writing changes the life of the author and the audience.
“It made me remember some things that I have always known. It has made me more aware,” Crawford said. “It is one thing to write about it, but it is another thing to live it. And I try to live it.”
Crawford noted her favorite piece of advice in her published piece.
“When you run into a negative person, keep running. That’s my favorite in the book and outside of the book,” Crawford said.
This same sentiment is evident in her goal as the founder of The Anchor News, a local newspaper which began publishing in 2002.
“The mission of the paper is to bring you just the good stuff…stories that build people up,” Crawford said.
Crawford highlighted that books are vessels of knowledge and change.
“Books… I just think they are universal,” Crawford said. “If you want someone to change, give them a book that you know they will enjoy. I think one way to make a change, or one way to cause a change, is to give them a book.”
March is National Reading Month, a whole month designated to encouraging Americans – and by extension Wacoans – to read! The Act Locally Waco blog is beating the drum for National Reading Month by hosting a blog series throughout the month of March, called “Books Matter.” Every day throughout March we will be sharing a post about a Waco resident and a book that matters to him/her. Thank you to students from the Baylor Department of Journalism, Public Relations and New Media and professor Amber Adamson for help with this fun project. To read all the blog posts so far, click here.
By Saphiana Zamora
In a society engulfed by data and statistics that determine worth, Marilyn Harren turns to The Tyranny of Metrics written by Jerry Muller to guide her through the journey of assisting others.
Harren graduated from Baylor University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work. She then continued her education at the University of Texas at Arlington through McLennan Community College where she received her certificate in special education.
Harren has work experience in special education, healthcare, pre-k through high school education and higher education, where she experienced first hand, the loss of original values due to the idea of perfect statistics.
Her background led her to relate to and admire The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Muller and to turn to the book for advice that could guide her work.
“The book connected different worlds for me,” Harren said. “I think I’ve read this book at least three times in the past month. I just can’t get enough.”
The Tyranny of Metrics explores the idea of metric fixation, where systems like education are fixated on the numbers of their job rather than their original mission.
“Everyone’s doing something to meet the measurement,” Harren said. “It’s upsetting to see children lost in education and doctors unwilling to help patients simply because of data and statistics.”
As the President of AHEAD in Texas, Harren works to ensure aid for the organizations that help disabled students in higher education. Harren’s current job at Texas State Technical College requires her to utilize her skills in AHEAD and in healthcare as well.
“The book called me to be aware of my setting both in the workplace and in AHEAD,” Harren said. “I love what I do and how I help students. This book helped me become aware of what I was doing wrong in the system by focusing too much on the numbers. It’s definitely important for everyone to find a book like this that opens their eyes.”