I think Wolfram is right - a storybook is different than a newspaper article.

I was responding specifically to the "I have the right to determine the age at which I discuss this with my children" comment. My point is that standing on your rights is very often futile, because whether you hunt for the information (as in, checking out a library book) or whether it's there in the real world (a kid goes to school, he/she is going to converse with other children at the very least and there will be information or misinformation spread between them), your rights, as you may perceive them, go down the tubes in the face of reality intruding on the parent-child relationship.

A few years ago, I got reamed by a school counselor because my then eight-year-old son and another child got caught talking about the "kids with guns" while at school. This was after Columbine. When questioned, Jake said it upset him and scared him to think about such a thing happening. She wanted to know why we would "let him watch the news" or stories about what happened, and I told her we hadn't. We'd discussed it in very general terms when he asked us about it, but he rode the bus with eleven- and twelve-year-olds who very graphically described what (they thought/imagined/heard) had happened.

Once yor child is in any kind of school, your chances of bringing up every possibly delicate subject exactly when and how you want to pretty fly out the window.

I was surprised that Judy Blume has been replaced by Phyllys Reynolds Naylor on the challenged books list. Poor Judy must be considered passe now. :-)

Another from me since the baby's actually happily batting at shiny! things in her bouncy seat.

What distresses me more about children's books was really beautifully exemplified at the book fair at the elementary school last night. Looked like a licensing warehouse had exploded in the gym. Amid the few copies of actual original titles were SpongeBob books, Wild Thornberrys books, SpyKids books, books based on Matt Steele (which as far as I know is a toy), et cetera, et cetera.

I get encouraging children to read. But there are so many inventive, funny, meaningful, thought-provoking books out there, the character tie-ins just make me nauseous. It's not just the commercialism, either; they're horrible books. Slapdash, no style. Sad.

Don't shop for kids' books at Barnes and Noble. Their kids' book sections leans heavy on the tie-ins with toys, very light on the actual books.

now I have another task -- I have to go to the children's section of the bookstore. Because we do have some tie-in book s( like pokemon) and lots of series books the library has lots of better books to. I never looked at the kids section at the book store ...now I have to .

Our Barnes and Noble is actually pretty good when it comes to the kids' department (they seem to have a decent buyer, and they feature lots of kids' reading groups, and author appearances), but the best store I know for kids' books (or any books, really) is the huge independent store near my parents, about an hour from here. My favorite place in the world. They have everything. I worked there once for about six weeks and they simply recycled my paycheck.

This was the Scholastic Book Fair held at school every year, last night. What killed me, too, was the number of non-book items offered. Toys, even, not just beading kits and mini science sets. Blech.

Ok, maybe I am old, but at our school bookfairs, I don't remember anything BUT books. Ever.

Not sure how old you are, but when I was kid, same thing. There were books, period. Good books. But I think at that point tie-ins weren't the huge chunk of the market they are now. I don't remember ever seeing a book for children that wasn't an original work of fiction when I was a kid.

Little House wasn't on the air until I had read the first few books, and even then, I was appalled when they changed the stories, added characters, et cetera. And that's a book-to-TV progress anyway, not the other way around.

I'm 29.

And I never saw Little House until after I had read the books. Bugged me too. Bugs me even more that more books have been released.

I saw the Wonderworks production of Anne of Green Gables first and then read the books, but those were fabulous. Well, the only 2 movies I acknowledge are.

Even now I cringe to think of Mary and her husband, and the blind school, and the fire, and the weird boy Ma and Pa adopted...shudder. The books were so wonderful as written, why change them? I suppose the show wouldn't have been on the air for ten bazillion so many years if they hadn't taken so much blatant artistic license.

And the books are in about seventeen different forms now, I noticed. Picture books, shorter chapter books, blah blah. Again, why? Grrr.