Reading to Remember Magnolia 2014

"From now on when we grab just one more book from the shelf, or read just a
couple more pages before turning out the light, we'll think of Magnolia..."

"May Magnolia live on with the sound of each page that is turned in her memory
and the joy that she brings to children who discover a book because of her."
- Quotes from friends

Dear Friends and Family,

The first anniversary of Magnolia's death is coming this weekend, and we
wanted to ask you to remember her with us. We know that so many of you have
been thinking about Magnolia and about us as the date approaches. Magnolia
died on the night of the 26th/morning of the 27th, which falls on Sunday and
Monday this year, but we will also spend Saturday night haunted by the
anniversary of putting her to bed on a Saturday night and finding her dead
body on Sunday morning.

Reading together was such an important part of Magnolia's entire life and our
life with her, and she had also developed an independent reading life in her
last months. This clip of Magnolia reading Down By The Bay to herself is from
the last night of her life, a couple of hours before we put her to bed for the
last time.

And that night, we each had the opportunity to sit with her on our laps and
read to her cozily, one of the great treats of every night we had with her.
That last night, we read her Feast for Ten by Cathryn Falwell, Bear Snores On
by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, Subway by Anastasia Suen and Karen Katz, and
Horns to Toes and in Between by Sandra Boynton. Because of the suddenness of
her death, those wonderful moments of reading to her on our laps were our
goodbye to her, although we didn't know it.

We'd like to ask all of you to join us in reading to remember Magnolia
sometime this weekend. We welcome any and all forms of reading: reading to
your children or grandchildren, reading to your partner, reading by yourself.
We just ask that you take a moment to think about Magnolia and to say her name
out loud, to make her present in your reading this weekend. On this horrible
anniversary, we want to have Magnolia on the minds and lips of as many people
as possible.

And after you read in her memory, please let us know about it. Send us a note
letting us know what you read and whom you read it to. Take a picture and
e-mail it to us. (We'd like to put a montage of photos on Magnolia's blog,
without any names, but let us know if you'd prefer not to have your image
there.) And please feel free to share this with others in your circle; we've
gotten many touching messages from folks who don't know us personally, and we
would welcome their e-mails and photos. All the messages people have sent us
over the past year have been a huge help, and we continue to re-read and
treasure them.

Magnolia's library fund has been an enormous success and has brought so many
new children's books to Bronx libraries. People continue to contribute
(http://www.nypl.org/Magnolia), and the fund has reached nearly $40,000,
surpassing our goal of 100 new children's books for every branch in the Bronx.
Thanks to all of you, children and families all around the Bronx will be
reading new books bought in Magnolia's honor, this weekend and long after.

We'll be sending an e-mail this weekend sharing memories of Magnolia and
catching you up on our family and our grief. But for now, we just wanted to
make this request, to ask you to read to remember Magnolia with us this
weekend.

Love,

Kendra, Sasha and Delphinium, Bronx, NY

We are close to finishing The Wizard of Oz, so we will have to finish that!

We also look forward to reading some of Magnolia's favorites over the weekend:

Books people are reading to remember Magnolia this weekend:

Ramona and Her Mother, Frog and Toad, Harry Potter, The Circle, Offerings: Buddhist Wisdom, Crow Boy, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, The Little House,  Ferdinand, Wonder, Blue Hat, Green Hat, 365 Tao, Smile, Bronx Accent, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, The Boggart, If Elephants Wore Pants, The Little Prince, The Tale of the Shining Princess, Hush Little Baby,

Folks reading to remember Magnolia: