Maya Smart

Maya Payne Smart is an Austin-based book lover and reviewer. She’s thrilled to have a platform to recommend life-changing reads to world-changing women.  An active community volunteer, she works to increase access to books and inspire a community-wide love of reading by serving on the board of the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation and the UT Libraries Advisory Council. She muses about literacy, literature and more at MayaSmart.com. Blog: Maya Smart Twitter: MayaSmart

Giving Picture Books a Fresh Look

On appreciating the art and craft behind picture books as an adult.

Are You Raising a Reader?

It’s hard to know where a parent’s work ends in supporting children’s academic achievement. Witness the helicopter parent next door ...

How To Be a Read-Aloud Rockstar

I celebrated Dr. Seuss’s 112th birthday by donning a red and white stovepipe hat and reading The Cat in the ...

On Monochromatic Reading Lists

Scanning through my Twitter feed recently, I came across a Time.com message touting 35 Books Everyone Should Read in Their ...

How A Picture Book for My Daughter Spurred Me to Deeper Reflection

“You’re such a good boy,” Jazz Jennings’s mother always said. “No, Mama. Good GIRL,” returned Jazz, a transgender child who ...

Summer Reading: Five Amazing Books for Amazing Girls

Each year authors Meg Medina and Gigi Amateau launch the Girls of Summer List of “amazing books for amazing girls,” ...

Can Reading Local Cure My Amazon Addiction?

While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of ...

Can Reading Local Cure My Amazon Addiction?

Here’s my confession. I buy 90% of my books from Amazon (gulp!), even as I diligently link to Indiebound.org on ...

The Case for Raising Your Reading Standards (If You’re Like Me and Don’t Have Any)

A less-is-better ethic is taking hold of my life. Influenced by an eclectic mix of productivity gurus, leadership coaches, spiritual ...

On Reading Books You Don’t Expect to Like

Sometimes a book just beckons you. It calls you to pluck it from the shelves, even when what lies between ...