It's making me terrified that Casper will pitch fits if she doesn't get one of her top choices from the AG catalog for Christmas.

One year, I wasn't allowed to ask for anything I only wanted because of commercials. Can you make some kind of rule like that? Although I guess it doesn't help if her friends have the AG stuff. I am still sad I was too old for that stuff, but there's no actual way I would have ever gotten any anyway! For reference, I had a "Cabbage Patch" doll my grandmother made me, not a brand one.

Poor Homer just had a seizure, and he's a little weirded out. Me too, man! Scary. (He's definitely had more I haven't seen, but this is just the second I've seen.)

Reading it alone, I found A Wrinkle in Time pretty scary in 4th grade.

What is a step up from Junie B Jones? The Great Brain?

Sounds like I need to read some L'Engle myself. I may go with Alex Rider for the 13 yr old.

Content-wise, I don't think there'd be anything wrong with A Wrinkle in Time.

But this is coming from the girl who was reading Stephen King at 11.

I am still kind of freaked out by A Wrinkle in Time.

What about The Mixed-Up Files...?

Poor Homer. Hang in there, Jesse.

What is a step up from Junie B Jones?

The Clementine books by Sara Pennypacker, the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume's Fudge books.

Roald Dahl is good for the about-7 demographic.

How about the graphic novel version of A Wrinkle in Time?

Oh, or the first Little House book!

It's really old and probably dated at this point, but The Boxcar Children series was a big favorite of mine at that age.

(The first book was published in 1924! I knew it was old but was unaware it was THAT old)