As a writer, my pregnancy(怀孕)became marked by worry as many people predicted I’d never read a book again once the baby was born. I felt_________ by the apparent ________ people who cared about me displayed as to it, because I saw it as my upcoming misfortune. I could forgive them only by telling myself they couldn’t possibly ________ how important reading is to my well-being. I knew if I had to ________ reading, I wouldn’t be the best me.

Of course, my newborn required constant_________. She wouldn’t sleep unless she was held, and she wanted to nurse all the time. But there’s a great benefit in ________ a baby who’s nursing or napping in your arms; it gives you lots of time to read. I had ________ using my e-reader until then, but it became my best friend as I discovered that I could ________ it with one hand and ________ library books when stuck in the house. In my daughter’s first year, I credited reading with getting me through those difficult early ________.

Reading is ________ to my mental health. I have discovered this is also true for my daughter. Every time she lost her_________, I would_________ her up, carry her to the reading chair, and open a book. As we ________ the chair, she often said, “Mama, please read me a story. It’s the only way I can calm down.”_________ makes a better me and a better mother for my daughter.

A trip to the bookstore with my granddaughter is always a big event. She ___ in it for hours, touching the books, running her hands over the covers, looking at a few ______ here and looking at a few pages there.

I never _____ the full importance my five-year-old Grand Angel placed on these trips, until the day I suggested she pick the book she liked best, ______ we could go home for dinner. Her response was _____.

“But Grammy, I ______ them all the best. All the covers are be-yoo-tiful and all the pictures are bee-yoo-tiful and they’re all _____. Just like people. Remember when you told me about people?”

I most certainly ____ when I told her about people. I had explained that we are all _____ in our own different way. Each of us has a story to ______ and no two stories are similar. We learn by ______ our stories and listening to the stories of others. Difference is the thing that makes each and every one of us _____. I had no idea that she’d connected the lesson with ______. Actually, no one book was ______ than any other book. They were equally beautiful and equally special (特别的).

With dinner still ______ and our stomachs beginning to make noise, ______ time was finally at hand. But how to choose? I suddenly ______ the right question when I asked, “Which book wants to go home the most with you today?” After a short moment of ______, her eyes lit up. She ran to a specific book and ______ it from its place on the shelf. The main ______ was the picture on the cover, a turtle with sad eyes. “We need to find out why the turtle is sad,” she said.

It was Jennifer Williams’s mother who got her hooked on books. When Williams, now 54, became an elementary school teacher in Danville, Virginia, she wanted her ________ to fall in love with ________ just as she had. But early on, she realized that some kids had ________ access to books.

“At the end of the first day of school, it’s very ________ to teachers which kids are read to and which kids are not,” she said. To Williams, the ________ was simple: Give kids books. In 2017, as part of a charity event called Engage Danville, she ________ 900 used children’s books over three days. “I just ________ to do something that’s going to stretch my faith.” she said.

So she set a new ________ for herself: Donate one million books. It sounds like an ________ number, but as Williams posted on Facebook: “Don’t complain in the bleachers (露天看台) if you aren’t ________ to work hard out on the field.”

So she got to work, first by ________ friends to donate books or money to buy books. Before long, as news of Williams’s project ________, strangers started ________ bundles of books on her front porch. As ________ as the books come in, Williams ________ them to local schools and little free libraries around the city.       By 2021, in the four ________ she’s been doing all this, the Book Lady, as Williams has come to be known, has given away more than 78,000 books—only 922,000 more to ________ her goal! And she’s not ________. It’s too important for kids with few ________.

“Reading can take you anywhere,” she told CNN. “You can travel in time and space. If you can read, there’s nothing you can’t ________.”