I've started volunteering with an literacy program; I read a book, along with a fifth- or sixth-grade student, then exchange e-mails with him about important themes and ideas. Dear Mr. Henshaw, about a boy who corresponds with one of his favorite authors, was a great way to start the program off -- whether writing for younger readers or telling the story of her life (as she does in Girl from Yamhill, which I read in 2011), Beverly Cleary is a perennial fave.