.jpg)
Michelle Howard Miller
Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, University of Alabama
C.V. For over 20
years, Michelle has been a librarian, home-education consultant, author, columnist, and speaker, specializing in top-quality living
books, educational vision, and history instruction. It
began in 1985, when she pioneered, funded, and acquired a library of such rare
children's literature, which has been thriving ever since; her Children's Preservation Library (in
Michigan) now houses over 20,000 valuable volumes, serving patrons in several
counties. A second library, Living Learning Libraries, is underway in Florida, with plans for additional
libraries, and thousands more rare
books already acquired.
Michelle is
considered a national leader/expert on living
libraries and literature, and helps others around the nation found and operate
such libraries as well, including requests to work with colleges, charter
school systems, and non-profit foundations. Currently, she is also consulting for the
library at the Hillsdale Academy (the K-12 classical school affiliated with
Hillsdale College), to further build their book collection with her expertise. She has developed a massive
database on specialized youth literature, which has been of service to many,
and her first-hand knowledge of youth literature in all academic areas is
unsurpassed.
Michelle has also been
asked to speak about education, literature, and history at many
levels--both in
person and via national radio--and is a regular contributing columnist
to
various national magazines and educational websites. Editors have
requested her insights through published articles on several topics over
the years. But, she also helps home-educating families (live or via phone/Skype) find thrilling, children-specific vision and direction through consultation.
Management of
her own library for over two
decades has led to her high-level expertise in library science, the
Dewey
Decimal system (significantly memorized), book acquisition and
processing, as
well as communications, service, operations, organization, teamwork, and
fiscal responsibility. Michelle wrote the multiple award-winning TruthQuest History curriculum,
which steers families through American and world history with deep, engaging,
spiritually-probing commentary, and which embeds her vast knowledge of
topic-specific living book recommendations throughout.
Michelle was an outstanding student herself in both high school and college (including invitations to apply to West Point, MIT, etc.), graduating summa cum laude from the University of Alabama, with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Communications, and an extensive, A+, senior project in youth literature and library science. Michelle home-educated all four of her children, one a Hillsdale College alumnus admitted to their esteemed Honors Program. She has been an active member of local churches and educational support groups over the years, has traveled to Europe and Russia several times, including overseas mission trips and international adoption, and now has seven cute grandsons.