Book Club and Sampling Children’s Books

I didn’t like the main character in the book club’s selection for our May discussion---Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. She was a mother of three, a powerhouse career woman who spent more time on her cell phone than talking with her kids and her cell phone caused her to get into a car accident that gave her a condition known as Left Neglect. I mostly associate left or right side neglect with strokes and TIAs but it can happen with other types of brain injuries and it causes the patient to literally not see things that happens on one side or the other of their bodies. Probably the most dramatic example of how it affects people is they will only eat food on one side of their plate. My dad had a mild case of Left Neglect after a TIA and my husband had a major case of Right Neglect after a massive stroke. My dad’s brain healed itself with a few months of therapy. My husband wasn’t so lucky. 

It’s rare when I don’t finish a book club book because I do love the discussions, but I got to the half way point in this book and thought, Why am I reading this? I was bored and the main character spent so much time feeling sorry for herself that she didn’t need my sympathy, assuming I could have whipped any up. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get my daily reading in this past month. I polished off five---count them---five books. Before you get too impressed I should explain they were easy-to-read children’s books. Why children’s books? I had mentioned in this blog that didn’t know any of the popular classic children’s stories because I didn’t have any kids and that I should ask my niece (who taught reading for years) to put a reading list together for me. She did better than that. For my birthday she gave me the following award winning children’s books:

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. The book was a 40^th anniversary edition and, wow, I didn’t see the ending coming. I never realized the topic of grief could be so upfront in a book for young teens, and for the writing to hold up all those years, is a credit to Ms. Paterson’s immense talent. It’s a perfectly depicted and timeless story of friendship and loss.

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White was also written in the 1970s and its target audience is ages 8 through 10. It’s a cute story about a swam who couldn’t talk. I loved how the author used that fact to bring humor into the story. “’Go?’ cried all the cygnets except Louis.” “’Why not?’ cried all the cygnets except for Louis.” Louis’s father was a long-winded talker and he reminded me of my husband. If most people can say something in 20 words, Louis’s father and my husband would stretch that out into a 200 word speech. Not sure if my niece saw that in the book but the parallel sure cracked me up.

The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Its target audience is probably 5^th through 7^th graders and it’s told through the eyes of a ten year old boy with an older brother and younger sister. It starts out in Flint, Michigan and ends up with the historic 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham that was part of the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. Anyone who has raised boys would love this book. Hallmark liked it enough to make it into a movie.

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, was my favorite book in the batch and I really didn’t want this book to end because I’m a sucker for a good dog book. The characters were quirky and funny and so well-drawn I felt like I could move into the neighborhood and fit right in. It will get a second reading.

I saved A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle to read last because it’s been a favorite of my niece’s since her childhood. It’s a fantasy sci-fi about a girl who travels through time and space to help her father fight an evil force and it’s been in continuous print since 1963. But it’s a book that is not without controversy. According to the American Library Association it’s one of the 100 most frequently challenged books by groups who want to ban it from schools. It’s in good company in that regard standing alongside Harry Potter and Captain Underpants and from my era of storytelling: To Kill a Mockingbird and The Wizard of Oz. One bone of contention is a very short scene suggesting that Shakespeare, Gandhi, Einstein, Buddha and Jesus are “standing together against the forces of evil” ticking off conservative Christians. Boo hoo! While book banners are focused on its religious overtones decades worth of young girls have been captivated by a having a smart and adventurous protagonist who looks like them, flaws and all. And I’m glad I finally took the time to read it.

Did your kids have a favorite book growing up? Did you? ©