To some, Wishbone may sound like a simple children’s show about a dog with a big imagination. But for those of us who remember it, the show was much more than that. It was a doorway into stories that many children might have otherwise avoided, feared, misunderstood or never discovered at all. It took names like Homer, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and made them feel exciting, funny, dramatic and

Hosted by LeVar Burton, Reading Rainbow launched June 6, 1983 and became one of the most beloved educational programs in American television history. Its official site describes it as a program created in response to “summer loss,” the learning slide that can happen when children stop reading over school breaks, but what began with an educational purpose grew into a classroom staple and cultural icon.

Today, on my mother Marjorie Reed’s birthday, I am reminded of how deeply God favored me by allowing her to be my mother. Not just because she gave birth to me. Not just because she raised me. But because she believed in me. She saw something in me early. She nurtured what was there. She paid attention to the things that made me come alive.