Another thing about that list, that someone on another forum pointed out -- none of those books have a non-white main character.

Any know this book? I read it around fifth or sixth grade, and I can't remember the title or author or any character names. The main character is a black girl whose father is a lawyer. Her mother's brother is a famous dancer. The girl's little brother loves dancing and wants to be a dancer, too, but their father won't even let him dance around the house, because he says that dancing is something that black people did to entertain white people before they were allowed to get educations and rise above things like that. The girl and a few of her friends start a sort of kids defense society, to confront adults who are abusing or maltreating kids, after they decide that they've seen enough of bad stuff happening to kids and nobody caring because they're just kids. The main character was about 13 or 14, and her brother was about 7 or 8.

I can remember so many details about this book, but nothing that'll help me identify it.

Back in the early 80s, when I was still in the library science program, I did a report about how comic books could pull kids in to the library, and my professors all said, "Well, I suppose, so long as we can quickly get them to proper books."

This is just appalling.

My favourite undergrad course was a Children's Lit class which spent a lot of time on fantasy, comic books and a lot of other, equally fascinating stuff. The professor who ran it was widely derided around the rest of the department. He was also the best teacher in the department, with better qualifications and research experience than most of the rest of them. And he introduced me to Harry Potter*. This is significantly more than my professor on the Nineteenth-Century Novel course managed, who regularly told us that kids weren't reading anything worthwhile anymore.

*Not in person.

My favorite teacher when I was in grade school was the librarian, Mrs. Conn. We were *friends*, not just teacher/student. I'd run into the stacks, and bring a book, and ask,"Is this worth the trouble?" and she'd say yes or no.

It's because of her that I read all the science fiction and fantasy books - and that there were *any* in my GRADE SCHOOL.

Librarians are such powerful effectors on childrens' lives; I wish we heard more stories like you Buffista-librarians and Mrs. Conn, and less of the (headdesk) variety.

When I decided I didn't want to become like my dusty, staid library professors and fellow students and changed majors, the one non-dusty professor tried to talk me out of it. She essentially said I didn't have to end up like all of the others, but considering the best student in the program freely admitted that she never went out because that interferred with her time studying in the library, I decided that I'd rather hang with my partying friends from the college radio station.

Hil, I bet this is it: [link]

It's also by Louise Fitzhugh, who wrote my beloved Harriet the Spy.

wait .. the alex rider series? they are good, fun books, but best ever? seriously?

Will the encourage a kid to read -- sure, but best ever? no way.

And I reccommend them all the time

Yes! That's it, Scrappy! Thank you!

Poor thing. He had a blighted childhood if Little Lord Fauntleroy was a highlight.

He also picked the Hardy Boys, most of which are less intellectually rigorous than comic books.

What about Roller Skates, Little Women, Johnny Tremaine and Half Magic? The Little House books, all the Melendys, E Nesbit and Rosemary Sutcliff?

It's not his usual beat...he's usually trying to get justice for underage foreign prostitutes or something, isn't he? In which case anything without "Me love you long time." looks like a Win, I don't doubt.(I may be a horrible person for typing that; please forgive me.) "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry..."(Just so I don't completely go to Media Special Hell for cracking on Kristof.) I also liked "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" as a teen, but I went to an early-seventies vintage high school, and there was a certain duality to my high school experience that might have made that one a draw for me at the time. Also "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings"(for teens, not kids...are we thinking kid-kids?)