Commentary: When you want to tell a heroine's tale, have these writers by your side

Every year, I read about 125 books. I'm not bragging - I've just been "that girl who reads" since kindergarten.

When I was 3, my mother, Gabrielle, went to the Stater Bros. Market in Rubidoux, Calif., and spent her last quarter on a Little Golden Book. She used it to teach me to read in one weekend, so I would be quiet when she went to work and dropped me off at the babysitter. My father was gone, she was pregnant and I made my way through "Tawny Scrawny Lion" again and again, then begged her for a new book.

I reread