About Carla
I've been reading books for what feels like my entire life. I don't remember the title of the first book I read, but I do remember being in the first grade reading such captivating tales where I was made to see Dick, Jane, Tom, and a bunch of other kids run and hop. I advanced from their perilous adventures to the highly engaging stories of Curious George, Amelia Bedelia, Ramona and Beezus, Pippi Longstocking, and many other popular books from my childhood.
Books have totally shaped my life. Right now I am taking a break from reading a book to write this stimulating bio. By the way, the book I am reading is TTFN by Lauren Myracle, a book written entirely in instant messaging. Yesterday I read TTYL and TTFN is the sequel. Both books involve a trio of best friends in high school who live in Atlanta and months of IM conversations that chronicle their lives.
Okay, so yes books have shaped my life. And I mean that. I remember liking a boy in the fourth grade who told me that I read too much. I tried to stop reading just to please him in hopes that he would like me in return and be my boyfriend, but I missed books too much. So I outgrew that crush. That was the same year I was a library helper at my elementary school during recess. I got to be alone with books and read to my heart's content. In fourth grade, I was introduced to Judy Blume by way of an excerpt of Freckle Juice in my textbook.
Then there were the many, many times that I was placed on punishment. My punishment? I was not allowed to read any books except textbooks. Do you know how hard that was to deal with? I could play with my toys, watch TV, go outside, but I could not read. I read my language arts textbooks like they were the most riveting things ever.
And of course, I was the child who read under the covers with a flashlight many, many nights when I should have been in bed sleep but the books just kept calling my name. Or I would sit in my closet with the door shut and flashlight on reading. Which is probably why I had to start wearing glasses in the fourth grade. I remember that first pair sort of fondly. Ugly as sin, but I wanted them because they were Fred Flintstones glasses. Yabba dabba doo!
As time went on, I added some more books, characters, and adventures to my reading repertoire. I became enchanted with Anastasia Krupnik and her brother Sam, Peter Hatcher and his brother Fudge, Encyclopedia Brown, Margaret (from Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume), the Choose Your Own Adventure books, and still more books from Judy Blume.
In the seventh grade, I saw that my mother had one of Judy's books and in my mind, I was offended that she was reading a book by one of my favorite authors so I took it. And read it. I was twelve years old and read Wifey. Oh my! Hey Ma, I still have the book. No really. I am looking at it right now. LOL!!!
Around this time, I became a junkie for Sweet Valley High and The Babysitter's Club as well as Lurlene McDaniel books. Lurlene McDaniel's books typically involved a teenager with cancer who was dying. By the end of each book, I would be in my room on my bed bawling.
For Christmas in the seventh grade, my mother gave me books! YAY!! One of them was Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown. I did not read it for almost another year, but when I did I was hooked from the first chapter.
As I became a teenager, I still read my young adult books but I also took another one of my mom's books – Disappearing Acts by Terry McMillan. Scandalous, but I loved it! After all of these years, it is still my favorite book by her. I was an eighth grader the first time I read it and I was amazed at how relationships "worked."
In college, one night I was stressed out from writing one too many papers. Taking a break to do an assignment for one of my education courses, I ran into some childhood books at the college library. I was in heaven! I sat in the library around finals time and read Are You There God? It's Me Margaret like it was going to help me with a paper, but it was like taking a trip down memory lane. Fellow students tackling papers, complex equations, Socrates and his friends surrounded me while I curled up with Judy Blume. It was the perfect stress reliever.
Yes I graduated from college, Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, and became a high school English teacher who was offended when her students said they had not read a book in years and was proud of it. I had students who did not even have a library card. This was totally foreign to me as I used to go to the library and check out twenty to thirty books at a time. I actually still do. But now I am smart and order my books ahead of time like a pizza only less calories.
As a teacher, I shared many books with my students. From the traditional books that we are encouraged to teach, like To Kill A Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to the books that I found really captured their interests, like The Giver, Tears of a Tiger, The Coldest Winter Ever, and Flyy Girl. I didn't teach some of these titles, but I found a way through some of the non-traditional titles to make literature connect with them.
And then I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2002 where I started writing because I kept having a dream about a girl named Kendra and a boy named Lamar. I wrote the first words on November 1, 2002 at an AVID Coordinators meeting. Those first words became Freshman Focus, the first book in the Carter G. Woodson High School series.
I still read voraciously but I also mix it up with some writing. Since I finished writing Freshman Focus in 2003, I kept writing and have been published too. In November 2005, I had my essay "The Sister Circle" published in SisterDivas magazine, an online publication. I am also a contributor to Surfacing: Phenomenal Women on Passion, Politics, and Purpose, an anthology dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Gumbo for the Soul, an anthology that promotes literacy.