Reading Changed My Life

The book Reading Changed My Life! Three True Stories   (West Berlin, New Jersey, Townsend Press, 2003) shows just how hard it is to live in a world where you can't read. While reading this book, I found out just how powerful reading truly can be. This book shows just how powerless someone can be without knowing how to read.. The author of this brilliant book is Beth Johnson. She has written coutless books from kids who could not read to people facing addictions in the world. Beth Johnson has showed me that through the hardships of the three women in the book any obstacle can be over come by hardword and determination.

This book is separated into three stories about women and reading. The first part is about a woman named Maria Cardenas. She is the second oldest of eight childeren. Maria lived in an abusive family where she would struggle every day. One day she managed to get a marigold, and she worked day and night to make sure that the marigold would survive. She said she cherished it because it was the only thing that she actually owned. When Maria was an adult, she finally could not stand that she could not read. She started with childrens books and went up, reading more and more complex books. Eventually, she even went to college and is working on becoming a teacher.

The second part is about Daisy Russell. Her father wanted her to be a boy and always viewed women as “worthless.” She was beat by her father all the time. When peole asked about it, she would lie, saying something like she fell down the stairs. As a result, she dropped out of school so she could escape the laughter of being called stupid and such. When she turned eighteen, she got a magazine which she wanted to read so badly. It took months for her to finsh the magazine. She would go into the dictionary and search every word that she did not know. She soon atempted to get her GED and with hard work, she got it. Now she does pulic speaking, tutoring, and TV apearances.

The final part...