1 . One day when I was 12, my mother gave me an order: walk to the public library, and borrow at least one book for the summer. This was one more weapon for her to ___my strange problem—____to read.

In the library, I sat down on the floor and ___a few books off the shelf ____. The cover of a book caught my eye. It ___a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal ___I ever had as a child. ___, one morning, he was gone, ___to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.

There on the book’s cover was a beagle which looked ___to my dog. I ___my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. ____, I read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it.

I started to read about Amos very slowly with ____. Though pages were ___slowly, I got the main idea of the story. At the end of the story, the final scene of ___lingered on my mind until my own lost dog and I were running together.

My mother’s call ___me to the real world. I never told her about my “ ____” experience, but she saw a slow, yet remarkable ___in my school performance. Years later, she was ___that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. Books could be ___wonderful and the ___of the words has held.