Born in Oregon. Raised in Oregon. I have Oregon green in my blood. I fished with my father and climbed trees in Mt. Tabor Park until I found tennis. From fifth grade through college my racquet was always nearby.

We moved too often, scrambled too much in our family. Books were a constant solace. I read series after series from Encyclopedia Brown to The Lord of the Rings. My library card was a ticket to escape. My writing notebook-keeping began this year. I kept it hidden in my sock drawer.

Swapped basketball for cheerleading. This public speaking led to drama and debate team. Preparation for a life speaking that I would never have dreamed of.

My best friends (Yukari, Zeena, Gloria) and I share the “That 70’s Show” vibe.

Oregon State University graduation beside my dad. Both my parents went to college but couldn’t finish. They dreamed this day into my life. I was an Elementary Education major with a minor in English. I left with thousands of dollars in debt. Ten days after graduation I was teaching 3rd grade in California with 34 kids in a portable classroom.

Still can’t believe my luck. Married Patrick Kittle on a snowy Oregon day in December. My advice: marry someone who makes you laugh. Hold on tight with both hands.

Cameron arrives: my portable, adaptable, beautiful baby boy. I finish my master’s degree at Lewis and Clark College a few semesters late but find Graves, Murray, and Atwell. As a mom, I discover daily, unstoppable JOY. Love. Hope. Giggles. I work part-time as a teacher.

Hannah is born three months after we move to Cincinnati for Pat’s work. Corkscrew red curls and contagious energy. Pure delight. I begin a PhD program at Miami University in Ohio. Babies + graduate school = not recommended. I never finish that degree.

We settle into Michigan for Pat’s work, and I supervise student teachers at Eastern Michigan University. In K-12 classrooms throughout the Detroit metro area, I learn how similar instruction is regardless of context or age. I read books by Newkirk, Rief, Heard, and Fletcher. I teach methods courses at night, inspired daily by young teachers. On Jan. 1, 1997 we move to the mountains of New Hampshire, following Pat's work.

I write an editorial for our local NH paper, The Conway Daily Sun, and Don Graves reads it. This begins a close collaboration of sharing drafts on his deck, presenting together at NCTE, and filming teachers who write with students in their classrooms. Our friendship spans the next 12 years. Writing his eulogy was impossibly hard. Forever grateful for this kind, generous, brilliant thinker in my life.

I served teachers in five local elementary schools, a regional middle school, and our 8-town valley high school for 15 years as the K-12 literacy coach for SAU#9. I worked beside teachers to understand the individual needs of writers and to individualize instruction to support them. I taught my own seniors in the morning, then spent the rest of my day beside young students. It has forever changed my thinking about reading/writing workshops.

I am writing a lot but sharing only with my students. I finally look at a call for article submission in my favorite NCTE journal, Voices from the Middle. I revise "Writing Giants, Columbine, and the Queen of Route 16" on my deck after school each night for weeks, then holding my breath, send it in. Kylene Beers, editor at the time, accepts it for the September issue. There is some whooping and wild dancing in my house that night.

Don Graves introduces me to his editor, Lois Bridges, and his best friend, Don Murray. This triad of support keeps me writing. I begin shaping a book from essays I write with students to show the moves essay writers make. I write my life, one essay at a time. My grandmother holds my first book a month before she died and tells me she read every word.

I teach my son and his many friends as seniors at our high school. I draft Write Beside Them in my notebook and finally gain enough steam to finish it and send it to my new editor, Lisa Luedeke. I am sure I am finished with writing. Write Beside Them wins the James N. Britton award for classroom-based research from NCTE in 2009, truly one of the most remarkable moments in my professional life.

NCTE New York presentation with some of my writing heroes: Tom Romano, Don Graves, Karen Hartman, and Meg Peterson. Each of these bold thinkers changed me as a teacher and learner.

I accepted a 2/3 teaching contract so that I could begin working with teachers in unexpected places: International School Bangkok, for one. The collaboration at ISB over six years reminded me of the power of YA to engage young people in voracious, continual reading. Likewise, the power of teachers to learn from students and each other.

When Book Love was published, my husband and I started a non-profit foundation, the Book Love Foundation, to provide books for teachers to share with students. In 2013 we gathered smart people to help choose four remarkable teachers from 40 applications. In the last 10 years we’ve raised over a million dollars and have granted libraries to nearly 500 teachers in 47 states and 7 provinces.

Kelly Gallagher and I imagined a book together in 2014. We would teach a year together, he in Anaheim, CA and me in North Conway, NH, to show what was possible in shifting curriculum to the needs of adolescents. 180 Days was an exhilarating, exhausting year of collaboration that has forever changed so much of my thinking. We wrote 4 Essential Studies when I made the shift from high school to college teaching in 2018.

The Boothbay Literacy Retreat was my June home for 10 years. Lobster, late nights, campfires, morning yoga, poetry, and the collaboration with my friends (Kylene Beers, Bob Probst, Chris Crutcher, and Linda Rief—along with a wonderful series of guest speakers) challenged and expanded my thinking about teaching and learning. I still long for this retreat each June.

Mrs. Kittle and “Little Ms. Kittle” teaching side by side in my daughter’s 5th grade class in Chelsea remains one of my most important teaching experiences. We were filming for my book, Micro Mentor Texts. Sharing joy. Problem solving and thinking together through the tumult of a school day. Watching Hannah encourage and celebrate her students. Nothing compares.

The Book Love Foundation was honored by the Library of Congress for successful practices to increase literacy. We are still jumping up and down with joy over this opportunity to connect with nonprofits from across the world.