Readers to Writers

Link to April 12 Appleton Post-Crescent article, "A fast start: Perry, Chang embraced love of reading early".

Excerpt: For Chang, an Appleton native and the daughter of Chinese immigrants, literature was the primer of American culture.

"I was a bookworm so I spent a huge amount of time reading," said Chang, 44, of Iowa City. "As a child, I read about the American Revolution in the novel 'Johnny Tremain.' I read about the Civil War in 'Little Women.' The books that influenced me the most, I suppose, because I think I read them the most often, were the Laura Ingalls Wilder 'Little House' books. What strikes me as I re-read them is how much of those books are about American history and about the settling of the West, about changes to the landscape, the confrontation of the early pioneers with the rough living of the prairie. Just really powerful stuff, all about place."