When I was a kid, if someone told me that I would grow up to become a published author and founder of a youth literacy (读写能力)foundation, I would have laughed and kept walking. Even now when I see the title of my latest picture book, My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World, I shake my head, not quite believing that book has my name on it. But the truth is, this story comes from my own personal experience.

It took me a very long time to find my personal reading voice. In Valdosta, GA, where I grew up, my community promoted two pathways to a better life for little boys like me: being an athlete and being an entertainer. I was no different than the other kids, so I did what felt natural: Play football and overlook school. School presented challenges every day and so did football practice, but overcoming physical adversity was on trend with my neighborhood’s culture. Reading books not so much.

Fortunately, I went to college. That’s where my reading struggles really appeared. Trips to the grocery store were stressful because there was so much reading involved in the simple act of buying food. I would misread labels and grab the wrong items. Once, I picked up apple sauce thinking it was apple slices. I didn’t notice my mistake until I got home and realized that it was my inability to understand the differences in the wording on the labels that caused the mistake. I realized that I needed to make an important decision. If I wanted to be a better version of me, I had to become a stronger reader

I joined a book club and read every free moment I had. My journey with reading also created a desire in me to inspire others who struggle with reading. So I started a nonprofit, Share the Magic Foundation, trying to transform the lives of children living in underserved communities through literacy.

Can you regain the thrill of reading that you experienced as a child? Time to dust off some of the best childhood classics ever written.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

This is the story of five-year-old Heidi, an orphan (孤儿) who is sent to live with her rough grandfather in the Swiss Alps and charms everyone she meets with her sunny personality-from the scary grandfather to Peter the shepherd, his blind grandmother and, in fact, the goats.

What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge

It tells the story of rebellious (叛逆的) Katy Carr and her violent brothers and sisters running relatively wild, despite the best efforts of their father and long-suffering aunt. There are a lot of life lessons provided in these pages but it’s never high-handed, always gentle and quietly inspiring.

The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden

This story is about magic, Christmas and the power of making wishes. The series of events that bring Holly and Ivy together wouldn’t stand up in real life for a nano-second, but the story is so movingly told that every time you read it, your faith is restored in the wonder of Christmas-a time when dreams come true and wonders can happen.

The Flight of the Doves by Walter Macken

It presents the fast, crazy and hair-raising journey of orphaned brothers and sisters Finn and Derval Dove, on the run across England to escape the control of their evil stepfather and reach their beloved Irish granny in the west of Ireland.

If, like me, you’re the kind of person who finds it hard to make decisions, then Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink might just be the book you have been waiting for. Because Blink is all about rapid cognition — that is, those moments when we make snap judgements, for example, when meeting someone for the first time or looking at something we’re thinking of buying.

He analyses exactly what goes on in our heads when we make split-second decisions and compares this to the thought processes involved when we take longer to come to a decision. Interestingly he claims that, “There are lots of situations — particularly at times of high pressure and stress — when fortunately haste does not make waste.”

What makes Blink a really interesting read is the number of stories that Gladwell includes to support his theories. One such story involves doctors in the Emergency Room at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. After told to change the way of diagnoses, instead of asking for information such as the patient’s age and weight and medical history, they were going to focus only on the patient’s blood pressure. And now Cook County is one of the best places in the US at diagnosing chest pain.

Of course, there are occasions when we leap to the wrong conclusion. In his research, Gladwell discovered that almost all the CEOs of the top companies in the US are tall. There is no actual relationship between height and intelligence, but for some reason, corporations overwhelmingly choose tall people for leadership roles. There is something going on in the first few seconds of meeting a tall person which makes us think of that person as an effective leader, which unfortunately stops us from making an informed decision.

All in all, Blink is a fascinating study on an activity that we all do several times a day. Read it and make better decisions.