b"Matters heart of thematterThingsthat Matter Since 1990 Raising ReadersFeaturing Local People, Places and Our experiment workedPUBLISHER& EDITOR IN CHIEF BY ELLEN DONKEREllen DonkerASSOCIATE EDITORRosemary MattsonSOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER W henourpiestliterarymomentswasseeing Rachael EntineADVERTISING CONSULTANTSRene Conlon childrenChristian leave for college with a gro-H. Leslie Gilman w e r ecery bag full of books pulled from the Amy Power born,Ishelves. One of the first he plowed COPY EDITORS hadsev- through was Steinbecks East of Eden. Nick Humez eralas- As he read it, hed update me over Tia Swanson pirationsthephonewithhisprogress.And for them. Two of the big ones were thatwhen he was finished, he expressed CONTRIBUTORS they would be able to sing on tune andthe same satisfaction I had felt upon Carla Labianca thattheybecomeavidreaders.Earlycompletingit.Imstillwaitingfor Donny Levit enough, I learned that they had goodChristiantoreadCry,theBeloved Olivia Mack McCool pitch, but a love of reading took longerCountry or My ntonia. Aimee Ryan to emerge. Madeline became an avid reader Tia Swanson As parents, you can stack the deckwhentheCOVIDlockdownsepa-Julia Maloof Verderosaby sharing your love of whatever inter- ratedherfromhercollegefriends. est youre passionate about. If all goes asTo stay in touch, they created a book planned, your kids will be afficionadosgroup and have been reading novels before catching on that you were nudg- Christian's bookcase is where I've beentogether ever since. She and I have shelving favorite books for years, hoping ing them in that direction all along.our children would read them some day. overlappedonafewtitlesandits Maybe thats what happened with us. great fun to see how her taste is de-Our kids have always been surrounded by books. Inveloping and to receive recommendations from her. The their early years, we spent hours reading to them. We wereclub is presently reading The Joy Luck Club, a favorite I regulars at the Maplewood Library, participating in storyhad mentioned to Madeline a while back.Please address all correspondence to: time and the summer reading program. And they oftenOut of our three, Timothy, was always the least in-Visual Impact Advertising, Inc. saw Rob and me relaxing with a book. That was their nor- clined to read, unless it was the sports page. Since he and P.O. Box 198 mal, and it mirrors how I grew up.Rob share a love of running, Rob tried to get him to read Maplewood, NJ 07040 My husband, Rob, did not come from a family of read- books authored by runners he admired. No dice. This past 973-763-4900 ers. But somehow, as a young boy, he got ahold of a book,November, though, Timothy visited a used bookstore and mattersmagazine.comand never stopped reading. Maybe that scarcity of booksbought a book by a famous cyclist. Another visit yielded info@mattersmagazine.com explains why we have different approaches to book owner- a book on Andre Agassi. And then Emmett Till. He even Matters Magazine is owned and publishedship. I get most of mine from the library, knowing that weput a few titles on his Christmas list. by Visual Impact Advertising, Inc., P.O.cant possibly fit everything we read on our shelves. Rob,Of course, I suggested that he utilize the library instead Box 198, Maplewood, NJ 07040. Matterson the other hand, needs to own every book he reads. Onof buying his books (after all, hes a poor college student) Magazine is free, with editions direct mailed 7 times a year to the residents of Maplewoodoccasion he has bought his own copy of the very book Iuntil he texted me a picture of his stack. He is growing his and South Orange and distributed to busi- already own. That means that even with occasional prun- library and using his knowledge gleaned from the books nesses and surrounding communities total-ing 16,000. Subscriptions are available toing, our shelves are overflowing.to have some interesting conversations.non-residents for $30 (U.S.), $40 (Foreign)Youd think that locating a book in the many shelvesAnd that makes my heart sing because I know how annually. No part of the publication may bearound the house would be difficult, but we have a systemmuch better reading can make ushow it opens us up reprinted or otherwise reproduced without writtenpermissionfromVisualImpactthat probably makes sense only to us. For example, if I wantto new perspectives, challenges us to a life of learning and Advertising, Inc. to find a book on my mental list of favorites, chances are itsoffers respite from a long day. CIRCULATION VERIFIED BY housed in the bookcase in Christians bedroom. Over time,Now that our children are about to graduate college U.S. POSTAL RECEIPTS. I placed on his shelves the books I particularly enjoyed, hop- come May, theyll be setting up places of their own. When READ & RECYCLE ing that our kids would appreciate them just as I had. they do, I may just buy them their first bookcase, hoping A few years ago, it finally happened. One of my hap- to see it overflow with favorites of their own. 10/ matters magazine / hearth + home 2022"