Holly Niner, the author of four published children’s books, lives in Ft. Wayne, IN.  Holly is a speech therapist who has always loved to read and later decided she wanted to write stories that children would enjoy.

One of Holly Niner’s enjoyable books, The Day I Ran Away, begins as the main character, Grace, a very young but determined little girl, recounts her day to her father at bedtime.  The story is told completely in dialogue with even alternating colors of text as Grace and her father have this conversation.  In Grace’s world, everything has gone wrong that day from not having her favorite shirt to wear to not having her favorite cereal for breakfast.  After being sent to her room for her misbehavior in light of these circumstances, Grace decides she needs to leave home and packs up her wagon to run away.  It was when she was standing next to the street with all of her special possessions in tow that she realized that running away was going to be hard because she was not allowed to cross the street.

The conversation and logic that goes back and forth between father and daughter is humorous and endearing.  I think most parents will be reminded of a time when they had the same experience with a child, or maybe even further back when it was them that wanted to run away.

Children and adults will both enjoy this book and can benefit from the great lessons it provides.  The theme of home is where the love is (as well as cookies and sandwiches) can be seen through the words and the illustrations.  Both are simple, but convey much. I only wish I had had the patience and ingenuity of the parents in this book as my children were growing up!  This great book, published by Flashlight Press, is the recipient of the Mom’s Choice Award Gold Winner and the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval.

Guest Writer: DIXIE KREAGER has been in education for 43 years as an elementary teacher, middle school language arts teacher, and for the past 10 years, as the literacy coordinator/instructional coach at West Noble Middle School.