When Danish-born Else Holmelund Minarik was teaching first grade on Long Island in the 1950's, she was frustrated by the fact that once her students learned to read, there weren't any suitable books available to challenge them and make reading fun. So she wrote Little Bear and submitted it to Harper Collins (thenHarper and Row.) It was immediately accepted and in fact launched the Harper "I Can Read" series of books. Since little ones love hearing Little Bear read aloud, I reviewed it in my first book-Beyond Good Night, Moon-75 Reviews of Classic Books for Young Children, but your beginning readers can easily read itindependently. I also kept the anecdote of this book's origin firmly in my mind as I chose the 75 titles for this book directed at emerging readers. In fact, eight of the titles are in the I Can Read series.



Joan Louthain Ayer graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Platteville and taught second grade at the Frank Allis School in Madison, Wisconsin.After she and her husband moved to Indiana, she taught first grade at the Maple Grove School in Wayne Township in Indianapolis. The following year, she taught third grade in Carmel. As the family transferred, she taught in the primary grades in other Indiana communities. She completed her Master's Degree from Butler University in Indianapolis and attended several Mid-winter Children's Literature Conferences, also held at Butler. Joan attended the Iowa Summer Writing Festival at the University of Iowa three times. She reviewed children's books for the Tribune-Star newspaper in Terre Haute for 15 years. She and her husband Gordon live in Indianapolis and have three adult children who all have very eclectic libraries. Their three grandchildren have their own burgeoning bookshelves.