Reading Changed My Life - Townsend Press

Reading Changed My Life! Three True Stories“Every little girl that walks in here—she’s me,”Julia says today. “Every child living in a house withoutbooks—that’s me too. There are none that arepoorer than I was. One of my earliest goals was toown a bottle of Ivory Liquid. We washed our disheswith the same powdered detergent we washedour clothes with. When I first saw dishwashing liquid,I wanted that so bad!” Because it helps herunderstand and reach the children around her, Julianever tries to whitewash her own difficult past.“Some people, they get a bit of success, and they actlike they never knew hard times,” she says. “That’snot what I’m about.”Instead, Julia says, “I tell the children, ‘Maybethe phone and the lights have been cut off at yourhouse. Maybe your parents are drinking and fighting.Maybe you’re feeling inferior because yourclothes are raggedy and your hair isn’t combedright. Maybe your house is full of cockroaches.Maybe you and your brothers and sisters all have to86