Authors band together to replace girl's beloved books lost in fire

Authors, librarians and illustrators are banding together to help a girl who lost all her beloved books in a house fire.

Heidi VanSumeren, 8, is an avid reader who also designs books of her own. But all her supplies and reading materials were destroyed last month when a fire decimated her family’s Parma, Michigan home.

“I just kept telling her it would be okay,” Heidi’s mother told MLive.com. She was right: an unexpected act of kindness was on the way.

Children’s author and illustrator Bob Shea met Heidi during a visit to her elementary school for March Is Reading Month. After hearing her story, he reached out to fellow authors and illustrators on Twitter, urging them to help Heidi replace her beloved book collection. Read more…