A Jen Too Many

I just finished filling out Oldest Girl Child's Scholastic Books order form. $31. Of course, as I pointed out to her father, we are getting 9 books for that amount. (Actually, I pointed out to him that we were getting 8 books for $27. That was last night. I decided to buy another book this morning.)

The one that OGC is the most excited about is Barbie and the Diamond Castle. Bleagh. That's really my only problem with Scholastic. I do wish they wouldn't have so many Merchandise of the Week books.* I'd like to buy classics and books that are going to become classics. I'd like more books that aren't related to anything my daughters might have seen on TV. Scholastic has plenty of classics, sure, but every time we get one of these catalogs, I have to spend a considerable amount of time dissuading OGC from buying all the books that I am snob enough to regard as junk reading.

Yeah, I admit it. I am a children's book snob. I hate, hate, hate, all the Dora, and Disney, and Scooby, and Pokemon, and Sponge Bob, and all the other Merchandise of the Week masquerading as books. Bleagh. Naturally, those are the books OGC is most enthusiastic about. When she comes home with the latest school library book, it is all too frequently one about a toy or tv show. It makes me grit my teeth when I read it at bedtime.

I am enthusiatic about Duck for President, and How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?, and Will You Read to Me? which OGC rejected, but which I added this morning, because, darn it, I want it. I'm sure she'll like it when I read it to her. Or Youngest Girl Child will. If nothing else, I'll like it, I'm positive.

Ooh, ooh!! Another good book I read recently is Hold Onto Your Horses. Such a cute book, about teaching a little girl to think before acting on her impulses. My parents were always telling me, "Hold your horses!" so this tickled me right away. Follow the link to get a free PDF file of the book.

You know, I just realized. I write about books a lot, don't I?

Maybe I shouldn't get into the story about my first experience with picture books, then. OK - you dragged it out of me.

First grade, my class's first visit to the school library. The librarian sat us down on the floor and started showing us all these stupid books that had pictures, but no words. I especially remember Harold and the Purple Crayon, which just annoyed me beyond measure. I'd never been exposed to picture books before and was seriously offended. There was no story! Just pictures! Where was the story? Don't tell me to make up the story in my head. That is not what books were for, I knew. They were for words, and for stories, and while pictures were very important, they were by no means all that was necessary. What was necessary were the words!

Finally, she let us go, and we wandered off to look at books for ourselves. Now, I can't help thinking I'm not remembering this correctly. If I am, they must have waited until well into the school year to take us to the library for the first time. Otherwise, I'm conflating two experiences, because I know I learned to read pretty quickly, but it still took a few months.

As I recall it - and I am quite sure this happened in first grade, just not sure if it was indeed during that first library visit - I had no interest whatsoever in those infuriating picture books. (I can still remember just how upset I was that they had cheated us with picture books instead of a story book.**) Instead of staying with the other kids, I wandered off to another area, where there were books that looked much more promising. I pulled a nice fat one off the shelves - Ben and Me - and started reading.

It was great, all about this mouse and Benjamin Franklin - I wasn't too sure who Ben Franklin was, but I sure thought the mouse was funny. That was when the librarian came over and tried to take the book away from me. That was a book for bigger kids, she explained. It was too hard for me. There were better books for me over there with the rest of my class.

I panicked and held onto the book. She was going to take it away from me! I wanted to read it! I didn't know how it ended! Luckily my teacher, Mrs. Sizer, came over right then.*** She let me prove that I could read the book by having me read a page of it aloud to them. They talked over my head for a while, then let me check it out. I also got permission to go to the big kids' section whenever I wanted. Although I do remember being very nervous the next time we went to the library until I was sure nobody was going to snatch me away from the interesting books.
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*Granted - Barbie is not exactly Merchandise of the Week. But you know what I mean.

**I didn't learn to appreciate picture books until I was an adult. Now I think Harold and the Purple Crayon is cute and clever, but for years I hated it passionately, remembering how deeply insulted I was at being told to read picture books instead of "real" books.

***Mrs. Sizer was the coolest. That wasn't the only time she went to bat for me. I adored her, and still love her dearly, to this day. I sure wish I could tell her how great an influence for good she was in my life.