The Best Christmas Gift

Twenty 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 the library books.

Hide the remote,

Let the computer games cool,

For one day your 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 

Goodnight Moon.

Turn the pages together,

Sitting close as you'll fit,

Till a small voice beside you says,

"Hey, don't quit."