Did you know that even a newborn baby gains lifelong benefit from story time? Neuro-educational studies have found that the brain is most impressionable to the nuances of languages during the first three years of life, and that the ritual of storytelling enhances problem-solving, decision-making, and even an understanding of abstract ideas. In fact, reading to your young children is more than a shared pleasure; it's an essential routine that is best introduced long before your children express an interest. Now, education specialist Jennise Conley, founder of the Energy and Sciences Education Initiative, presents an indispensable, early-development resource in the form of her whimsical, charming children's book, A Fish, a Frog, and a Gnome: My Favorite Poems. Through three easy-to-read, playful rhymes and vibrant illustrations, this book is certain to help engage children and students in a lifelong joy of reading while helping to sharpen their cognitive abilities and tap into the power of their young imaginations. Presented in large, clean letters with eye-catching, colorful pictures, the three delightful, whimsical rhymes featured in this book will help start an early ritual of reading that is both fun and reader friendly, while at the same time enhancing cognitive development. Themed around three wishes, the rhymes introduce children to this abstract notion through clear, comprehensible stories. "The First Wish" features a young child who wishes to catch a fish, and instead finds something very different. "The Second Wish" spotlights a bespectacled frog, who wishes that he was a dog with surprising, silly results. "The Third Wish" finds a gnome at home, grumpily sleeping on a piece of foam. In addition, the book features a letter to parents to help them make the most of story time. From instructions on the best practices for reading to newborns to the importance of repetition in the human brain, this instructional letter will enable any parent to make the most out of reading to lend comfort, facilitate the processing of information, and make story time a perennially fun experience for your child. By portraying books as a treasure trove of exciting mysteries and new ideas to discover, you'll share with your children a magical world that will become a natural, and deeply meaningful, part of your child's life.