20 Minutes A Day

By: Richard Peck

Read to your children

Twenty minutes a day.

You have the time,

And so do they.

Read while the laundry is in the machine.

Read while the dinner cooks.

Tuck a child in the crook of your arm

And reach for library books.

Hide the remote,

Let the computer games cool,

For one day your children will be off to school.

"Remedial?", "Gifted?"

You have the choice;

Let them hear their first tales

In the sound of your voice.

Read in the morning;

Read over noon;

Read by the light of

Good Night, Moon.

Turn the pages together,

Sitting as close as you'll fit.

Till a small voice beside you says,

"Hey, don't quit."