“Journeys — Young Readers’ Letters to Authors Who Changed Their Lives” by the Library of Congress, edited by Catherine Gourley (Candlewick Press, 226 pages, $18.99)

Another s choolyear is drawing nigh. Do you remember the sense of excitement we felt as we prepared to return to school? During the third and fourth grades, I had teachers who set aside an hour each afternoon for story time. They read books aloud to us. That experience was transforming. I have been adedic ated reader ever since.

A book for young readers reminds me of the literary worlds that opened up for me when our fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Anderson, read to us from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series. “Journeys - Young Readers’ Letters to Authors Who Changed Their Lives” is a collection of 52 letters written by students in fourth through 12th grades.

These lette rsevokethe sense of discovery and inspiration that young readers feel about writers who have made a special connection with them through their work. Even though m anyofthese letters were inspired by authors who died long ago, they can still reveal a powerful truth — that books can help us to understa ndourlives.

In a letter meant for the poet Emily Dickinson, a girl expressed how she felt after reading the poem “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” She wrote: “This poem truly spoke to me, because sometim es,Idofeel like nobody. Emily, you made me feel like being a nobody is so much more fun than being a somebody, and you made me agree with you. Also, you made me feel like I’m not alone.”

A g irl living on a farm wrote Marjorie Kinnan