Jamie Janosz

I was a voracious reader as a little girl. I remember visiting the Thornton Public Library each week and working my way through first the young reader and then young adult sections. Finally, the librarian gave up and let me start checking out adult books, guiding me to some great choices. Characters, specifically female characters, became my best friends. I immersed myself in their lives. I loved their courage, their feisty personalities, and their dramatic situations. They could do anything! Through books, I was able to do have adventures that were just not possible in real life. Cracking open a "new" library book, with that oh-so-distinct library smell, was one of my favorite things to do. Here are my favorite childhood heroines - maybe you can add your own? Laura Ingalls Wilder The books were classics, with the television series beginning in March 1974. I found out recently that the books, based on the true stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder, were actually ...

Women connect differently than men. At a very young age, we are taught to find and claim a very best friend - a girl friend who will be our BFF, our closest confidante. Anne Shirley (with an "e") and her bosom buddy Diana Barry. Nancy Drew and her gal pals, George and Bess. We tell our best friends our deepest secrets, share our fears, confide our crushes, and, sometimes, we break each other's hearts. When I was very young, I had two best friends - one who lived next door and the other who I saw at church. Michelle lived next door to me with seven brothers and sisters in a three-bedroom house that was identical in almost every way to my own suburban ranch. Their home was often bedlam - kids couldn't find socks, the littlest child was naked, Michelle's mom would be cutting huge stacks of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in one swipe - desperately trying to get her brood off to school. I loved it. Michelle and I would walk to Parkside School together,...