Michael Leannah

press release: Michael Leannah will read and present his new children’s picture book Goodnight Whispers at A Room of One’s Own bookstore in Madison at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 4. Leannah will also read his award-winning picture book Most People. Both books are for children ages 3-8, though interested parties of all ages are invited to attend.

Goodnight Whispers is the story of a father's words of affirmation doing extraordinary things in the life of his daughter. The girl is a fun-loving child who grows to be a confident teen and a courageous young woman. The story comes full circle when later the daughter uses the same approach on her aging father and on her own young son. Goodnight Whispers shows how the words we use today—when speaking to a child, to a friend or stranger, even to ourselves in the mirror—have a direct connection to the world we will inhabit in the future.

            Leannah wrote Most People in reaction to the scary words and images kids hear and see and experience every day. Yes, we must be careful of strangers, but let’s remember that most people in the world are good.

A career educator and the creator of the We Think with Ink writing instruction program, Leannah writes for adults as well as for children. In 2013, his Something for Everyone, a history of a Wisconsin department store chain, was published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

Leannah is a father of three. He lives in Sheboygan.