Meet Diane

Welcome and thanks for being part of the team every child needs to become the reader they deserve to be.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a team of parents, educators, volunteers, and care givers—working together—to make sure children acquire the early literacy skills they need to become successful learners.
Every adult has the opportunity to show a child how to love reading by helping them find great stories. Asking questions that jump start conversations—talking to children about the stories they read—are how children understand what they read and find pleasure in reading. Children who get more from the books they read will ultimately become children who love to read.

I hold a Master Degree in Children’s Literature and Language Arts. Since 1989 I have worked as an educational consultant in children’s and adolescent literature. My educational consulting practice specializes in early childhood education and literacy and provides school communities – parents, teachers, and librarians, as well as individual families, and private organizations – the tools, resources, and knowledge to instill in children a love of reading.

See Diane at work:

Diane speaks to elementary school parents and faculty

PJ Library features Diane Frankenstein

Find out more about my availability for Consulting /Speaking

Read Diane’s recent Musings to read pieces on subjects that relate to the emotional and intellectual well being of children.

What am I looking for in the books I read?

For me, reading and travel are one and the same. The books I love take me places and introduce me to ideas, characters, and experiences that expand my mind and knowledge of the world. The best of books tell me something about who I am and who I might become.

Books Worth Knowing and Characters Worth Meeting…

Some of my childhood favorites:

  • Scheherazade from The Arabian Nights introduced me to the question: “And then what happened?”
  • I learned perseverance from Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could.
  • I fell in love with afternoon tea after meeting Leerie from Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, “The Lamplighter”
  • I wanted Merlin, from The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle, to be my teacher
  • I love pudding today because of the pudding eating Pokey Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey.

Some memorable characters I met later on

  • Dominic from William Steig’s, Dominic
  • Reynie from Trenton Lee Stewart’s, The Mysterious Benedict Society
  • Nick from Andrew Clements’s, Frindle
  • Kate from Jean Little’s, Hey World, Here I Am!
  • Clara from Cynthia Rylant’s, The Van Gogh Café

For the curious…

I am forever trying to figure out a way to read every book in the Library of Congress, travel the world and still keep the chicken soup warm on the stove.

The best advice I ever gave my sons: “Put on your roller skates and go and see the world!”