Can I ask, sara, who she is? I need your mom's help with baby and picture books. Not for a while. But eventually.

Only if the sweet was the only thing turning you off from it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Well, now I need to know, is the thing.

When I was 11 I was devouring Marguerite Henry books.

I am Laga. But, that is when I read my first grown-up book, too (Roots), so I was in a weird place, bookwise.

I'm pretty sure 11 is when I started in with the Agatha Christie.

She's the girl who lives across the complex ( I can see her balcony, she mine) from me. I think I called her T here. The one whose play I practiced lines with and then saw this summer, if you were around then. Really, she's Mister Kitty's doter...

My mother will be delighted to give book recs, and probably unload copies she has in whatever direction. As you might have figured out. (Your conversations were so fun. All I knew was you were speaking the same language.) ERIC CARLE! Um...

I love Eric Carle. Allyson gave me a sticker with a dragon from him.

But I think I need to start with board books and foam books. Chewables.

I think that summer (of my 11th year) I started Watership Down. And read it twice over again because I didn't want it to end.

Eric Carle does those. Really! Hungry Catepiller is a classic board book, as is Pat the Bunny. Which isn't Carle, but still! I still recall the smell (baby powder) of that book fondly.

OK, finding out the Amber Alert I saw on the road was the result of the death of the mother, even if the kids were recovered ok, is really depressing. I'd hoped it was just a fucktard custody dispute. So much worse.

I should be to bed now.

She might like Harriet the Spy. At that age, I loved Caddie Woodlawn, Roller Skates, the Little House books, the Black Stallion books, the Trixie Belden books, and books by Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Enright, Edward Eager, Eleanor Cameron, E. Nesbit and Marguerite Henry. A little later, I became obsessive about Rosemary Sutcliff. It's hard for me to know if the modern child can related to any of these.

It's hard for me to know if the modern child can related to any of these.

Oh Ginger, I feel your pain!

When I began teaching this age, I kept thinking, "Why don't you like the books I liked!" But then I began reading contemporary junior fic and realized it's totally different. sometimes edgy, sometimes funny, issue-laden and so good. The world's a totally different place now.

For my super strong readers, they'll still gravitate to children's classics, but for most readers, especially kids who live in urban settings and are struggling readers, children's classics are way hard. They have difficulty creating a mental picture of the world necessary to understand those books and to decode as they read.

It just takes a while to build up to those.