‘Love of Reading’ lecture honors Pleasant Rowland

School of Human Ecology Professor David Riley will present a free, public lecture in honor of Pleasant T. Rowland, founder of the Pleasant Company and the American Girls Collection.

The lecture, “Literacy and a Love of Reading in the Middle Years of Childhood,” is set for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, at the Human Ecology Building, 1300 Linden Drive. Rowland will receive a UW–Madison honorary doctorate on Friday, May 14.

Rowland founded the Pleasant Company, which produced the American Girls Collection of dolls, books, magazines and accessories from 1986-98, until Mattel acquired the company. The Collection series, targeted at girls about ages 8 to 11, are renowned for historical accuracy, covering America’s colonial era to World War II. The characters represent the multi-ethnic face of America: African American, European immigrants, Hispanic, and Nez Perce.

Since selling the Pleasant Company, Rowland has focused her energy on the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, a charitable organization supporting the arts, education and historic preservation.

In his lecture, Riley will discuss how parents and caregivers can make a big difference in children’s progress toward literacy. “Songs, nursery rhymes, and terrific books,” Riley says, “play key roles in opening children to becoming lost in a love of reading.”

Riley studies the rearing of children, from infancy to middle childhood. He shares academic work on the best practices in childrearing with thousands of people around the globe through a parenting education newsletter delivered in either English or Spanish. Riley also co-directs the Wisconsin Child Care Research Partnership and the Wisconsin Early Childhood Excellence Initiative.