Saved by the Page — Contributors

Zoe Allyn

Abuse & trauma · Abuse

Also known as Zoey Allyn

• № 1Survived sexual abuse by a family member at nine and locked the memories away until a high-school class brought them flooding back.
• № 1Days later she found A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks on her bed. It showed her that what happened to her was not who she was.
• № 1She learned kindness from Jamie, courage from Landon and acceptance from Reverend Sullivan, and still rereads the book. “It saved my life when I didn’t want to live.”

Lynn Glass

Identity & belonging · Belonging

• № 2A self-described loner who read King Lear as a teen and devoured the books of a special senior-high reading class, including Jurassic Park and The Crystal Cave.
• № 2Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles became her go-to when she needed to step away from things beyond her control; she read it five times before classes ended.
• № 2After a year of personal trials without reading, a used bookstore reopened the floodgates. She now rescues books over a century old from dusty shelves.

Elizabeth Sagan

Identity & belonging · Identity

• № 3Gave up fantasy for “serious” books because she wanted to be a lawyer, thinking no one would ask her about Harry Potter. She was miserable.
• № 3An epiphany in 2016 sent her back to reading and to the book community. “I have tried to live without them and it didn’t work for me.”

Kate Birch

Love of reading · Escape

• № 4Has carried a book everywhere since she was eleven; she was twenty-three when she wrote her piece.
• № 4Describes books as lifelines that welcome readers into worlds where prejudices are forgotten. “Books are a necessity for so many people. Including me.”

Elyse Reye

Mental health · Depression

• № 5Has lived with chronic depression since childhood; books were the first thing that silenced the voices telling her she wasn’t good enough.
• № 5In 2013 a new medication left her critically ill and unable to walk or speak. A light-hearted romance at her bedside drew out her first laugh in weeks.
• № 5She recovered alongside the Dragonlance series and Harry Potter, chatting about books with her physical therapist as she learned to walk again.
• № 5Stories began forming in her head; she has since published three urban fantasy books.

Nicole M. Bohr

Illness · Illness

• № 6At twenty-one she was treated for a tumor in her ascending colon after months of unexplained pain and weight loss.
• № 6Her Aunt Shari sent the first two books of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series; family and friends then bought her the rest.
• № 6Her aunt later introduced her to Minnesota authors John Sandford and Julie Kramer. One for the Money remains her treasured book.

Isabelle Armstrong

Mental health · Anxiety

• № 7An unstable home left her with severe anxiety and depression; she hid in her room, reaching for anything to keep her steady.
• № 7Carried Deathly Hallows in third grade and found solace in Harry Potter and in Feyre Archeron from A Court of Thorns and Roses.
• № 7Says books helped her escape the pull of suicidal despair. Their message: “You are not alone.”

Michelle L. Villa

Abuse & trauma · Abuse

• № 8Her father became violent toward her mother and then the children; as the oldest of five she tried to protect her siblings and often wished not to exist.
• № 8At eight she found Goosebumps in the school library. At ten a teacher pressed Harry Potter on her, and it saved her “both physically and mentally.”
• № 8Spent five years in foster care to stay with her sisters. She credits J.K. Rowling with saving her life and hopes to save others through her own writing.

Kathryn M. Banks

Mental health · Anxiety

• № 9Agoraphobia she had battled since early high school overtook her at university; most days she couldn’t board the train to class.
• № 9Bought Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella on impulse and found its heroine facing the same struggles. She finished it that night.
• № 9Reading three books a week became a safety net; it helped her finish her degree and start writing again.

Aurora Dominguez

Grief & loss · Grief

• № 10Grew up in Puerto Rico. Her uncle Angel Aguilar Jusino bought her Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at a Borders in Plaza Las Americas.
• № 10She became a journalist and later a professor and teacher, crediting her uncle’s belief in her. She calls herself a Hufflepuff.
• № 10Her uncle died of pancreatic cancer in February 2018; she thinks of him whenever she reads about Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Nini

Identity & belonging · Bullying

• № 11Started reading to help with dyslexia and found her genre in her aunt’s young adult fantasy books.
• № 11Badly bullied from her first day of high school to her last, she spent more time in the library than the cafeteria.
• № 11Took confidence from heroines, especially the line “I am Celaena Sardothien and I am not afraid.” She still carries a book to feel safe.

Kendra Olson

Identity & belonging · Belonging

• № 12Spent early childhood in Switzerland; moving back to the United States, and later to New Jersey, left her isolated, anxious and depressed.
• № 12Fell in love with dystopia through The Hunger Games and related deeply to Newt in James Dashner’s The Maze Runner.
• № 12At her first New York Comic Con in 2014, aged thirteen, she picked up Red Rising. Pierce Brown later wrote to her: “that hope is already inside of you, books just help to bring it out.”

Lilly Santiago

Mental health · Depression

Also known as Lilly

• № 13Read Percy Jackson, The Hunger Games and more, but City of Bones by Cassandra Clare shaped her during a hard summer at thirteen.
• № 13Her mother lost her job, her parents fought over custody, and the family lost their apartment. She later faced severe depression and thoughts of ending her life.
• № 13Bookstagram, signings and a job at a bookstore gave her friends and purpose. “Every story in every book I ever read played a part in saving my life.”
• № 13After a friend asked about her story for Saved by the Page, she wrote it and began reading and writing again. She calls books her lifesaver.

Chaselyn Coats

Love of reading · Escape

• № 14When life became unbearable, cracking open a favorite book made it okay for a while. The more she read, the more she wrote.
• № 14Aspires to be a writer. “Books save lives.”

Amanda Hoyer

Mental health · Depression

• № 15Grew up on Greek, Egyptian and other myths, then Arthur and Merlin; dreaming of befriending dragons first woke the writer in her.
• № 15Her brother introduced her to superhero graphic novels; reading them together kept her close to him when depression set in around fifth grade.
• № 15In college she realized myths are storytellers naming their tragedies and persisting through trauma, and that she too writes her own fate.

Ulysses Guerra

Love of reading · Inspiration

• № 16Always an avid writer, he had never opened a book from his mom’s shelf until green letters on a spine caught his eye.
• № 16Started Harry Potter with the third book by mistake, then begged for the first. He now owns five sets.
• № 16Inspired by J.K. Rowling, he spent seven years writing a 300-plus-page book and hopes to be published.

Bryant Dailey

Identity & belonging · Belonging

• № 17Severe asthma ruled out sports, and he admits acting and singing were never his calling either.
• № 17Since around 2008 books helped him find his best friends, a close friendship with his school librarian, and an English teacher who encouraged him to write.
• № 17Books let him step into characters’ shoes and borrow their strength to face his own demons.

Alex

Identity & belonging · Identity

• № 18Lived in the shadow of others’ expectations, lonely because he wasn’t being himself.
• № 18Names three books that saved his life: Paper Towns by John Green, Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
• № 18His message to readers: “You are the author of your own story. You are not alone.”

H.B.D.

Identity & belonging · Identity

• № 19Has been poor all her life and homeless three times; her family struggled with substance abuse and violence.
• № 19While struggling with her sexuality she read City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, relating to Clary, Izzy, Magnus, Simon, Alec and others.
• № 19Those characters gave her confidence; she now has close friends and a girlfriend who means the world to her.

Katherine Sorensen

Identity & belonging · Identity

• № 20Found Kissing Kate in the Teen Fiction section of Barnes & Noble and realized it was a lesbian romance.
• № 20Read every LGBT young adult novel she could find, which gave her the confidence to come out in college. “I am out and proud because of literature.”

C.A. Thomas

Identity & belonging · Bullying

• № 21Autistic, with an abusive father, she was also bullied at school by people who didn’t even know her, and was in a very dark place.
• № 21Grounded without Wi-Fi or TV, she picked up Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, which her mother and sister were reading.
• № 21Halfway through, she realized the voices in her head had gone quiet. “Reading books gave me the quiet I’ve always craved.”

Jenna Van Mourik

Grief & loss · Grief

• № 22Her grandmother read her Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden and Little House on the Prairie, and helped her dress up as Anne and Laura.
• № 22Her grandmother died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Her mother asked her to read just fifty pages of a book; she never stopped.
• № 22In time she could reread Anne of Green Gables without crying. She plans to dedicate her first book to her grandmother.

Joanne Lumière

Identity & belonging · Belonging

Also known as Joanne Lumiere

• № 23The pressures of school in Hong Kong brought her to despair and thoughts of death in her last years of high school.
• № 23Books were her “first answer”; the community of authors, bloggers and BookTubers behind them was her second.
• № 23After graduating in 2018 she attended BookExpo and BookCon. She ends: “like a phoenix rising from the ashes, I was saved by the page.”

Jessica Shelley

Abuse & trauma · Abuse

• № 24Searched for books about children who survived emotional abuse and found none; she healed through fantasy instead, including the wardrobe of The Chronicles of Narnia and the wizarding world.
• № 24Took a year off a Creative Writing MA to write a myth-inspired YA fantasy she plans to query.
• № 24Quotes Emily Dickinson on hope and Clarissa Pinkola Estés: “send out the message of our return to those who are like us.”

Cherish McKellar

Mental health · Addiction

Also known as C.J.

• № 25Forced by her mom to read half an hour a day, she came to love stories and imagining herself as a fairy.
• № 25In seventh grade she fell into an addiction to pornography and hid it out of fear, until her dad found out. “And I was free.”
• № 25Returning to books gave her safety and courage; she has now been free for years. She signs her piece C.J.

Shannon Rose Lee

Mental health · Depression

• № 26Had thoughts of suicide from age twelve; years later she understood it was depression.
• № 26Twilight consumed her life from 2006 to 2012, from midnight release parties to the films. “To say that it kept me alive is an understatement.”
• № 26It made her want to become a writer and gave her friends even when depression pushed people away. She wears her Twihard badge with pride.

James Trevino

Love of reading · Escape

• № 27Asks himself every day whether he would jump into a magical portal; most of the time the answer is yes. “That’s when reading comes in to save me.”

Yessica

Mental health · Anxiety

• № 28Diagnosed with anxiety attacks, she felt ashamed and alone. Her doctor suggested hobbies, so she began reading more.
• № 28Characters helped her accept and cope with anxiety and stay grounded.

Jennifer Cazey Daniels

Illness · Illness

• № 29Her mum was diagnosed with stage four small cell lung cancer and given one to two years.
• № 29She struggled to read A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas, but a manager reminded her the hope she finds in stories would see her through.
• № 29Reading in the hospital waiting room, she found the line “Only you can decide what breaks you” and had it tattooed before her mum’s first chemotherapy.

Ashlyn Cowart

Grief & loss · Grief

• № 30Her best friend died by suicide in 2015, leaving her in a dark place for a long time.
• № 30Reading The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, she found “Annabel Lee” and saw that Edgar Allan Poe kept living after losing his love. So could she.

Jessica Lawlor

Identity & belonging · Belonging

• № 31For her reading is about connection, knowing “some people feel what I feel.” Without it, she says, she’d be lost.

Audra Fetherolf

Abuse & trauma · Abuse

• № 32Slowly lost herself in an abusive relationship, which grew worse after her daughter was born.
• № 32During sleepless nights with the baby she began City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and Clary’s courage helped her find her own.
• № 32She left with what she could carry and is now safe and happy with her daughter.

Barbara Kljaić

Identity & belonging · Dyslexia

Also known as Barbara Kljaic

• № 33Diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia at seven; classmates’ laughter made her hate reading.
• № 33At thirteen her best friend lent her Delirium by Lauren Oliver. When the sequels weren’t translated into her native language, she read them in English.
• № 33She went on to read in German and to write. She quotes Vincent van Gogh at the start and end of her piece.

Charlotte Williams

Mental health · Depression

• № 34Relentless bullying led her to drop out; she was diagnosed with depression at fifteen and didn’t leave home for six months.
• № 34Reading and writing became her crutch; characters’ growth helped her accept her circumstances.
• № 34At nineteen she is still fighting her demons “with the mighty Andúril, or Sting, or Longclaw, or Goldryn,” and hopes to give others what books give her.

The Reader Myth

Love of reading · Hope

• № 35Shares six lessons from a life of reading, including “Doing the right thing doesn’t mean you are not scared, but that you do it anyway.”
• № 35Last lesson: the world is never as dark as you imagine; there is always some light.

AlyMarie Fox

Identity & belonging · Loneliness

• № 36Told as diary entries from 2007 to 2018. As a child she raced through Nancy Drew on weekly library trips.
• № 36Excluded by friends at recess, she began reading outside alone. “Books won’t leave you behind.”
• № 36Tried rewriting Harry Potter with an alter ego at nine; in 2016 she finished an 800-page manuscript and now studies English at university.

Krissu_LovingStories

Love of reading · Escape

• № 37Middle school, after a move, was the lowest point of her life.
• № 37In the last weeks of eighth grade she picked up a children’s book that made her feel safe, and returns to it in low times.

Ana Paula Camacho Perez

Identity & belonging · Loneliness

Also known as Ana Paula Camacho Pérez

• № 38From an early age fear kept her from speaking, leaving her isolated; only her grandmother comforted her, reading aloud from three enormous books.
• № 38Her first book, held on the school playground, opens with how the comings and goings into Narnia began. It is quoted from C.S. Lewis’s Narnia.
• № 38She calls it “the first time I didn’t feel alone.”

Annaellen

Identity & belonging · Belonging

• № 40Began reading daily at nine or ten; books got her through losing a trusted friend and feeling out of place.
• № 40“It was okay to be a bookworm, and it was okay to be me.” #ProudBookworm

Abby Moeller

Grief & loss · Grief

• № 41At sixteen her young aunt died, and a week later her great-grandmother. Exams loomed and nothing seemed real.
• № 41The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath helped her recognize her grief and begin to heal; it is now one of her favorite books.
• № 41Years earlier, grieving her cat, she was angry at a Ray Bradbury documentary because his cat was alive. “Because of books, I can live.”

Emilie Messavussu

Identity & belonging · Bullying

• № 42Lived through violent unrest in Lomé, Togo as a small child before moving to Chicago, where she barely spoke English.
• № 42Bullied for years over where she came from, she felt low enough to consider self-harm.
• № 42The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ended her hatred of reading. She now studies English and hopes to become an editor.

Rey R.

Love of reading · Escape

• № 43“I need reading as much as I need oxygen.” Reading is a break from reality and a way to save the world through the page.

Yesenia M. Collado

Identity & belonging · Loneliness

• № 44Moved to a new city for high school and had no friends there; lonely and depressed, she had thoughts of ending her life.
• № 44Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas gave her a reason to live: she had to know what happened in the next book.

Laura Diaz Arce

Mental health · Anxiety

Also known as Laura Diaz de Arce

• № 45Grew up poor and afraid “All. The. Time.”, with an eating disorder from first grade and severe anxiety.
• № 45Fantasy let her imagine a version of herself that wasn’t afraid; “Little by little I built myself from words on a page.”
• № 45Now writes fantasies for others. “Books built me into my own hero.”

J.D. Netto

Love of reading · Inspiration

• InFounded the Saved by the Page movement at the end of 2017, flying home from his last event of the year, and wrote the introduction.
• InBook tours after The Whispers of the Fallen let him meet thousands of readers who each began by naming the book that changed their life.
• № 39Grew up the oddball in Brazil, reading and drawing comics while other boys played soccer. His family moved to America in 2000.
• № 39At a thrift store he found Jurassic Park and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: “I have found my own group of misfits!”
• № 39In 2002 a friend introduced him to The Lord of the Rings; J.R.R. Tolkien led him on to Narnia and Harry Potter, and to writing his own tale.