One of my strongest childhood memories takes me back to holiday dinners at my grandparents' house, where we would sit and drink tea, long after dinner was done, listening to my grandfather tell stories. GongGong loved to tell stories about his boyhood in China, about life on the farms in Northern California during the Depression years, about the escapades of his dog Susie. I grew up hearing these stories over and over, year after year – his and the stories of my grandmother and mother and father, too. Now, when I read the poems I wrote about these stories, I hear their voices again.

I like to sandwich my poems in story, to show how the poems come from my life. Hopefully, when you read my poems, you will be reminded of your own stories: how you baked cookies with your grandmother, your birthday parties, your old friends. So when you share my poems with children, you can sandwich them in your own stories, connect them to your own life, too.

You can listen to Janet read all the poems and stories in this section by playing the audio clips for each story. Janet's entertaining reading style beautifully captures the spirit and emotion that makes these poems so special. For further instructions on how to play these audio clips, please click here.