At 19, Vancouverite Karina Zhou launched her first book, Kai’s Tea Eggs, earlier this week.

Zhou first _________ the story as an entry for a picture book illustration contest. She _________ the gold award. Getting it out there for the world to see was the natural next _________: “Because it did so well in that contest, I really want to publish this,” she says. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree _________ her style, and inspiration often struck as she _________ the pages of other books. “I went to every _________ I could find and sat in the kid’s sections (区域) for a long time.” she says.

Much of Kai’s Tea Eggs was drawn from Zhou’s _________. “The story is inspired by a day when I _________ tea eggs for a multicultural event at my primary school — it was a really _________ experience and everyone liked the food,” she remarks. Her book recreates that __________ through the main character Kai: a sweet child, who, with the __________ of a friendly dragon named Ming, finds the courage to embrace (接纳) and explores the foods of her Chinese heritage.

Zhou-noticed a pattern when sharing the story with people from different __________. Many said that they could __________ the experience of the main character Kai, who feels __________ about sharing the food of her Chinese culture. “Everyone has gone through the anxiety in their own unique way,” Zhou notes.

The book is Zhou’s first, but she has plans for more: “I do want to __________ finding stories that are meaningful and that I think need to be in this world right now,” she says.

Danay Ferguson loves to read. Her parents often find her ________ past her bedtime racing to the end of a story. “If you’re ________, you can be in your own world and do almost anything you ________,” she says.

Danay wanted to open a bookstore, so she did some ________. She learned that in low-income neighborhoods, there may be only 1 book for every 300 kids. She decided that needed to ________. So at age eight, Danay started an organization. Reading Heart collects books that are donated (捐赠) by people. Then Danay and her friends ________ the books to kids in schools and low-income neighborhoods.

On visits to ________, Danay turns the book giveaway into a ________. With dancing, free T-shirts, and tables of books, her “Book Tour” has visited more than 150 schools in her area to get kids ________ about reading at her reading party. After kids choose their books, Danay gives them a ________.

“They can keep their book, ” she says. “But when they’re done with it, they share it with a friend.” By ________ books, Danay explains, kids get to read ________. “It’s like building mini libraries for each kid. When we give 500 kids a free book to ________, each kid has the ________ to read 500 books! It’s a(an) ________ feeling to see a kid’s smile when they get a book for the first time.”

Not long ago, Linda was sitting by a hospital bed, feeling anxious. Beside her lay her 88-year-old father. His heart was ________ and he needed an operation.

What ________ her almost as much as his health was the fact that all day the two of them had engaged in nothing but ________ small talks. She and her father had always had good ________, but now all he talked about was the awful hospital food and the ________ outcomes of his illness. His once wide-ranging interests seemed to have ________ to the size of the room.

That day in the hospital, Linda’s eye fell on the ________ that people had brought as gifts and left on the table. Her father had always been a passionate reader, but lately he didn’t have the ________ or focus. She ________ a book, and started to read it out loud.

It ________ changed the mood and atmosphere. It was a ________ and a pleasure for both of them. Reading gave the daughter a way to connect with her father and help him in a situation that was ________ out of her hands. ________ allowed the father to travel on the sound of his daughter’s voice, up and out of the bed and back into the world of mature, intelligent engagement, where he ________ himself again.

In fact, almost any kind of reading to another person can be ________ to both parties, providing a joyful shared experience.