>> elvira whitten was a great woman, a high school english teacher in the small town of waterville mainehere i grew up. one day, mrs. whitten asked me to come in and talk to her at the class. my first re, was what did i do wrong? i sat down at her desk and she said to me, what do you read? i said what do you mean? she said, what due read? newspapers, magazines. i admitted to her i read only books as necessary to get through school. i was too embarrassed to tell her that i did at of reading what have we now call comic books. she said, i think you are ready for something else. she picked a book up off of her deck and handed it to me, the nove novel ella called "the moon is down" and said i would like you to read this. you don't have to do it. this will not affect your grade one way or the other but i think you will own joy it and i think you should start reading more. i went home that night. i so much wanted to impress her and i loved the story. i gave her an oral book report probably longer than the book, itself. she said, that's good. months. i read dozens of books. she introduced me to