The ability to read is one of my most treasured skills. From reading Dr. Seuss to reading Kurt Vonnegut, it has really changed my life and inspired me to write make stories of my own. Reading has opened my mind to so many different aspects that I would have never known without reading. Just by being able to understand words on a paper, newspapers books and even web-sites, has helped me growing up understanding the way other people think. It has helped me better treat people who are different from me and helped me understand that it’s okay to be different and unique. It has given me the opportunity and confidence to write my own works in hopes that I someday get the recognition my favorite authors get. Picture books are some of my favorite books even now as a teenager. The colors and illustrations tie together the imagination of the author to their own unique stories and style. Those pictures help kids and adults understand what the words are saying better and they definitely help if you are just learning to read. Picture books also help people with smaller imagination see the bigger picture. In my experience with picture books, they have helped me teach my little cousins and sister to read and understand books in a more fun way. Having kids look at silly little illustrations while listening to you read and following along to the words really can help them understand what the words mean. Giving kids a fun chance to learn how to read could help them learn to love reading and writing. And someday maybe turn them into some of the best authors we have ever seen. Even the famous authors Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe (some of my favorite authors) were children learning to read once. My hope is that I can achieve the goal of being one of the best writers in the near future. I have always wanted to be able to write for a popular magazine brand while also publishing my own books. I love the idea of people being able to read about the lives of other people fiction or nonfiction. How those people lived their lives fought for love or freedom and lived for adventure. It’s those exciting books that let kids be kids and let adults relish in the memories of childhood. Valorena Publishing & Cocoa Kids Collection Scholarship could help me make it happen. One step at a time I aspire to reach my dream. Thank you for your consideration and this opportunity to express how literacy and picture books impacts my life.