Here’s a sweet story to launch our week on an uplifting note:

At 3 years old, Anna Ramirez, hadn’t spoken a word. She was diagnosed with autism and enrolled in speech therapy. After a few months, she still spoke only rarely, but she loved to listen to her mother read stories. Eventually, Anna taught herself to read and write.

Hoping to nourish her love of reading, her mother Micaela took Anna and her brother Daniel to the library every Tuesday and Thursday. Anna absolutely loved to read and would often check out up to 14 books at once. Reading helped her build her vocabulary and her speaking skills—she enjoyed reading aloud to her mom and brother.

One day at the library, Anna saw a bunch of preschoolers with their teacher, who wasn’t reading to them. “Do you think they’d like to hear me read them stories?” she asked the librarian and pointed to a few children sitting in a circle looking at picture books.

With the teacher’s approval, Anna sat down beside the toddlers and asked, “Do you want to hear a story?”

“Read us another!” one little boy said after she finished—so Anna kept reading. The kids were back the next day and Anna had a fresh pile of books to read aloud to them. In between stories, she chatted and laughed with the children.

“I’ve never seen her so happy and outgoing,” her mother said.

“Everyone needs to feel special and seen,” the librarian replied, who arranged for Anna to be appointed to the library’s Early Literacy Campaign. “I like making little kids smile,” Anna told a TV reporter. She also talked about how much reading meant to her.

Anna, who’s now 11, couldn’t speak when she was little, but she wants to be a voice actor when she grows up. For now, she never leaves home without a book because, “I have to be ready in case I meet a little kid who wants to hear me read them a story.”

This charming tale of Anna and how reading changed her life comes to us via Woman’s World (April 8, 2024). It’s a wonderful reminder of the power of words and books. We are wizards of words! We create the stories that give Anna and other children—and everyone—the chance to fly away to new worlds. Write on!

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