Sue Ann Martin

Sue Ann Martin is professor emerita of Communication and Dramatic Arts and the founding and past Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  She first became interested in children’s literature when she wrote her PhD thesis on the oral characteristics of the Caldecott Award-winning children’s books.  Her PhD is in Speech and Interpretation with a cognate in Early Childhood Education.  She went on to review children’s books for the Detroit Free Press, write three popular resource books for teachers regarding children’s books and the creative process.   She also reviewed newly-published books for Arts Almanac specials on WCMU Public Radio.  Her 2002 children’s books special for WCMU won a Merit Award in Special Interest Programming from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

“Reading books aloud to young children,” Martin says, “is one of the most satisfying ways to introduce them to the beautiful sounds and lilts of the language, to the wonders of the world, to the excitement of suspense and to the pleasure of concentration, while at the same time, bonding with the child in a genuine, long lasting way.  My mother did the same for me as she read hours and hours of Robert Louis Stevenson poems.”