When the Tail Wags the Dog

by Mari Barnes
The Facebook page reads “Adventures in Reading—formerly Flying Turtle Publishing.” That’s accurate for Facebook, but it’s not the whole story. I used that Facebook page to build a community,. which was the advice of all the marketing gurus. Well, it was finally more than 800 strong, and I didn’t intend to start from scratch simply because the tail was furiously wagging the dog. The program I’d planned to use to increase book sales got far more attention than any of the books. Here’s how we got to that point.
I was over the moon when an agent requested my manuscript for Parting River Jordan. In the end, she told me she found it funny and enjoyed the story, but she wouldn’t represent it. In an explosion of ego and ignorance, I decided to publish the book myself. With far less research than I normally undertake to choose what type of bread to buy, I started Flying Turtle Publishing in 2009.
The most important thing I didn’t know was what a publisher does. Publishers aren’t in the book-production business. Publishers are in the business of book sales. I have never been—and still am not—a salesperson.
I tried, sort of. I was constant, but not consistent. With fractured focus I read every book, every article. I watched every webinar and paid hundreds of dollars on whatever new, shiny program promised me marketing success. I became intimately acquainted with the meaning of “epic fail.” I’m not casting any aspersions. I’m sure people have benefited from taking courses, joining Facebook groups, signing up for email lists. Just not me. Still, I stubbornly hung in there. I created some of the best books that no one wanted to buy.
My heart was never in the sales. Oh, but baby, I could come up with hundreds of ways to give books away. I wanted to put my books into the hands of children and show them how to have fun reading them. Not only my books—everyone’s books. In 2017 I began to implement Adventures in Reading as a volunteer in Chicago Public Schools, and dawn began to break. I wasn’t interested in selling books. I was interested in getting people to read.
In various forms, I’ve been doing Adventures in Reading for more than 30 years. I created literacy activities for after-school programs at the community center where I worked near the Cabrini-Green housing project, at the Salvation Army LaVillita Corps Community Center in the Pilsen neighborhood, among other places in Chicago. I even enlisted willing participation from my employers and co-workers to donate and volunteer.
I can’t imagine my life without reading, and I’ve always looked for opportunities to share the magic and excitement of books with children. I realized that those activities encouraged kids to take some joy in reading and writing. When I recently discovered Donalyn Miller’s books on reading (The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild) I became convinced that if we connected reading with pleasurable activities, we could get kids to read more.
There’s sound science that supports this. Independent reading is crucial to becoming a better reader, and schools are not structured to provide much independent reading time. Teachers are doing as much as they can, and Adventures in Reading works with them. Teachers can teach children how to read. Adventures in Reading can show kids how to enjoy reading.
In 2018 an author visit with fourth graders at a public school changed everything. I’d seen the kids a year earlier, and they had asked me to write them a story with very specific parameters. I took it a step further and wrote them a book, The Magnificent Classroom (their title). When I returned with their book, I’d also created a workbook they could use to create their own stories (Grow Your Story Tree). By some miracle, I managed to fit all 23 of their names in their chapter book. They were elated, and I finally figured out my place in the world.

With the help of super partner, Maren Woodlock, Adventures in Reading has shared stories about trees at an Earth Day celebration with preschoolers, shepherded the creation of a poetry book at a church day camp, and given away books for the price of “one sentence” at music festivals and back-to-school bashes. Through a partnership with The ACE Project (Active Children Excel), Adventures in Reading is working with parent mentors in two schools, helping kids discover their own joy in reading and sharing books with their families.
Most importantly, I hope that participants will see themselves as readers. Choice and small victories are the keys to that. With time and encouragement to read whatever they want to read, we hope to build communities of readers who support each other in a shared love of reading for life.
Among our offerings are Grow Your Story Tree and Grow Your Poet Tree, interactive programs that put kids at the center of creating their own books, professionally produced and available online for fundraising sales. The pAIRent Partners programs encourage parents to find their families’ personal Adventures in Reading at home and anywhere they happen to be. AIR Outside, our newest program, allows participants to experience and learn about local ecology “from the bottom to the top.” All AIR programs stress opportunities for independent reading.
Flying Turtle Publishing still exists. It supports Adventures in Reading, by supplying books at cost through in-kind donations, and financial contributions. I still need to spend time figuring out how to sell books. But Adventures in Reading is stepping out on its own as a non-profit organization in the process of obtaining 501c3 status with the IRS.
Adventures in Reading wakes me up every morning to plan word-family races for kids and help parents create art projects based on books they’ve read with their children. So I still have a dog, but thanks to finally following that passionate tail, my dog hunts.

Mari L. Barnes is an author who writes under the pen names of Mari Lumpkin and ML Barnes. President of Flying Turtle Publishing, Inc. and CEO of Adventures in Reading, Inc., she has more than 30 years of editorial experience and has spent many years creating / implementing children’s literacy programs. Mari lives with The World’s Greatest Husband and a temperamental garden in Hammond, Indiana. To find out more or learn ways you can help, email Mari at mbarnes@aireading.org.