Childhoods of Mediocre Americans

A girl and  her needle-nose pliers : a biography for young readers / by CollageMama.

This week I unjammed my document shredder with those needle-nose pliers.  Pretty pleased with myself.  True, if I didn't feed peculiar materials for worm compost bedding and/or mixed media collages into the machine it would work better. Then the diamond-cut shredder at work jammed, and I applied my new expertise and a liberal dose of shredder lubricant to the task.

I don't have a team of rivals or the art of power. Young kids have many over-achieving role models, with or without steroids. The first time a child gets a happy face sticker for folding his/her nap blanket, we are pondering future greatness. Never mind that blanket folding has not been accompanied by a reduced amount of digital nasal exploration, or a remembrance of things to be flushed, but I digress.

In Mrs. Ahlschwede's third grade class we read the Bobbs Merrill "Childhoods of Famous Americans" formulaic biographies.  Then we recorded the titles on lined 3x5 notecards in our very best new cursive handwriting.  Abigail Adams and Jane Addams were dull, depressing books, but I kept working my way through the alphabet picking up reading speed and comprehension.  When I was plucking books off the shelf it seemed that every female was either rolling hoops down cobble streets or wearing hoop skirts.  I couldn't even hula hoop.

Fast forward to Bernie Madoff : Young Ponzi Schemer.  I'm evaluating subtitles for my new series of deadly dull early reader chapter biographies. 

• : Crockpot Girl of Old Nebraska
• : Finder of Lost Fisher Price Chickens
• : Hot Glue Sharpshooter
• : Sight of Blood Fainter
• : Young Letter Writer 
• : Future Blogger
• : Chex Mix Maven

I've never tried to insert an Excel document into a blog before. These are the 180 titles I've compiled so far for the Bobbs Merrill series, Childhoods of Famous Americans. Perhaps it will save some other obsessed person a long search.  Or it will suggest a new subtitle. Abigail Adams A Girl of Colonial Days Jean Brown Wagoner 1961 Adams, Abigail John Quincy Adams Boy Patriot  Anne Weil Adams, John Q. JANE ADDAMS,  Little Lame Girl  Addams, J Louisa Alcott Girl of Old Boston  Jean Brown Wagoner Alcott, Louisa John Alden Young Puritan Olive W. Burt Alden, J Ethan Allen  Green Mountain Boy  Gertrude Hecker Winders Allen, Ethan Susan Anthony Girl Who Dared Helen Albee Monsell Anthony, S Louis Armstrong,   Young Music Maker Dharathula Millender Armstrong, L John Jacob Astor Boy Trader Dorothy S. Anderson Astor, J Crispus Attucks Boy of Valor Dharathula Millender Attucks, Crispus YOUNG AUDUBON Boy Naturalist Audubon, John James P.T. Barnum Circus Boy Augusta Stevenson Barnum, P Clara Barton Girl Nurse Augusta Stevenson Barton, Clara ELIZABETH BLACKWELL Girl Doctor Joanne Landers Henry 1949 Blackwell, Elizabeth Daniel Boone Boy Hunter Augusta Stevenson Boone, Daniel Jim Bowie,   Boy with a Hunting Knife Gertrude Hecker Winders Bowie, J William Bradford Pilgrim Boy Bradford Smith Bradford, W Anne Bradstreet Young Puritan Poet Montrew Dunham Bradstreet, Anne Jim Bridger Mountain Boy Gertrude Hecker Winders Bridger, J Luther Burbank Boy Wizard Burbank, L Richard Byrd Boy of the South Pole Guernsey Van Riper, Jr. Byrd, R Andrew Carnegie Young Steelmaker Joanne Landers Henry Carnegie, Andrew Kit Carson Boy Trapper Augusta Stevenson Carson, K George Carver Boy Scientist Augusta Stevenson Carver, G Walter Chrysler Boy Machinist Ethel H. Weddle Chrysler, W George Rogers Clark Boy of the Old Northwest  Katharine E. Wilkie Clark, George R Will Clark Boy in Buckskins Katharine E. Wilkie Clark, W Henry Clay Young Kentucky Orator  Helen Albee Monsell Clay, H Mark Twain Boy of Old Missouri Miriam E. Mason Clemens, S DeWitt Clinton Boy Builder Mabel Cleland Widdemer Clinton, DeWitt BUFFALO BILL Frontier Daredevil Augusta Stevenson 1948 Cody, William James Fenimore Cooper Leatherstocking Boy Gertrude Hecker Winders Cooper, J Davy Crockett Young Rifleman Aileen Wells Parks Crockett, Davy GEORGE CUSTER Boy of Action Augusta Stevenson Custer, G Virginia Dare Mystery Girl Augusta Stevenson Dare, V Jeff Davis Confederate Boy Lena Young deGrummond Davis, J Stephen Decatur Gallant Boy  Bradford Smith Decatur, S John Deere Blacksmith Boy Margaret Bare Deere, J Lee DeForest Electronics Boy Lavinia Dobler DeForest, L Cecil B. DeMille Young Dramatist  Hortense Myers  DeMille, Cecil B. George Dewey Vermont Boy Laura Long Dewey, G Babe Didrickson Girl Athlete  Lena Young deGrummond  Didrickson, Babe Joe DiMaggio Young Sports Hero Herb Dunn DiMaggio, J Walt Disney Young Movie Maker Marie Hammontree Disney, W Dorothea Dix Girl Reformer Grace Hathaway Melin Dix, Dorothea Mary Mapes Dodge Jolly Girl Miriam E. Mason Dodge, M Abner Doubleday Young Baseball Pioneer  Montrew Dunham Doubleday, Abner Frederick Douglass Boy Champion of Human Rights Elisabeth P. Myers Douglass, F AMELIA EARHART Young Aviator Beatrice Gromley Earheart, Amelia Amelia Earhart  Kansas Girl Jane Moore Howe Earheart, Amelia George Eastman Young Photographer  Joanne Landers Henry Eastman, G THOMAS A EDISON Young Inventor Sue Guthridge 1947 Edison, Thomas ALBERT EINSTEIN Young Thinker Marie Hammontree 1961 Einstein, Albert Dwight D. Eisenhower Young Military Leader Eisenhower, Dwight D Duke Ellington Young Music Master Martha Schaaf Ellington, Duke William Fargo Boy Mail Carrier Katharine E. Wilkie Fargo, W David Farragut Boy Midshipman Laura Long Farragut, David Harvey S. Firestone Young Rubber Pioneer Adrian Paradis Firestone, H John Fitch Steamboat Boy  Augusta Stevenson Fitch, J Henry Ford Boy with Ideas Hazel B. Aird  Ford, H Bedford Forrest Boy on Horseback Aileen Wells Parks Forrest, Bedford STEPHEN FOSTER Boy Minstrel Helen Boyd Higgins Foster, Stephen Ben Franklin Printer's Boy Augusta Stevenson Franklin, Benjamin Jessie Fremont Girl of Capitol Hill  Jean Brown Wagoner Fremont, J Robert Frost,   Boy with Promises to Keep Ellen Wilson Frost, R Robert Fulton Boy Craftsman Marguerite Henry Fulton, R LOU GEHRIG Boy to the Sand Lots Gehrig, Lou George Gershwin Young Composer Bernice Bryant Gershwin, G Robert Goddard  Pioneer Rocket Boy Clyde B. Moore Goddard, R U.S. Grant Young Horseman Augusta Stevenson Grant, U Nathanael Greene Independent Boy Howard Peckham Greene, N Nathan Hale Puritan Boy Augusta Stevenson Hale, N ALEC HAMILTON The Little Lion Helen Boyd Higgins Hamilton, Alexander John Hancock New England Boy Cathrine Seward Cleven Hancock, J Nancy Hanks Kentucky Girl  Augusta Stevenson Hanks, Nancy Joel Chandler Harris Young Storyteller Ethel H. Weddle Harris, J WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON  Young Tippecanoe Howard Peckham Harrison, William H. Bret Harte Young Storyteller  Janet Branham Harte, Bret Patrick Henry Boy Spokesman Thomas Frank Barton Henry, P James J. Hill Young Empire Builder Mildred Houghton Comfort Hill, J OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Boy of Justice Montrew Dunham 1961 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. HERBERT HOOVER  Boy Engineer Mildred H. Comfort 1965 Hoover, Herbert Harry Houdini (Young Magician) Kathryn Kilby Borland Houdini, H SAM HOUSTON Boy Chieftain Augusta Stevenson Houston, Sam Elias Howe Inventive Boy Jean Corcoran Howe, E Julia Ward Howe Girl of Old New York Jean Brown Wagoner Howe, J Langston Hughes Young Black Poet Montrew Dunham Hughes, L Washington Irving Boy of Old New York  Mabel Cleland Widdemer Irving, W Andy Jackson Boy Soldier Augusta Stevenson Jackson, A Rachel Jackson  Tennessee Girl  Christine Noble Govan Jackson, R Tom Jackson  Young Stonewall Helen Albee Monsell Jackson, Thomas TOM JEFFERSON A Boy in Colonial Days Helen Albee Monsell 1939 Jefferson, Thomas Lyndon B. Johnson Young Texan Thomas Frank Barton Johnson, L John Paul Jones Salt-Water Boy Dorothea J. Snow Jones, J Chief Joseph Boy of the Nez Perce  Olive W. Burt Joseph Helen Keller Handicapped Girl  Katharine E. Wilkie Keller, H Francis Scott Key Maryland Boy Augusta Stevenson Key, F Martin Luther King, Jr. Boy with a Dream  Dharathula H. Millender King, M Robert E. Lee  Boy of Old Virginia Helen Albee Monsell Lee, R John L. Lewis Young Militant Labor Leader George Gershon Korson Lewis, J Meriwether Lewis Boy Explorer Charlotta M. Bebenroth Lewis, M Liliuokalani Young Hawaiian Queen Shirlee Petkin Newman Liliuokalani Abe Lincoln Frontier Boy  Augusta Stevenson Lincoln, Abraham Mary Todd Lincoln Girl of the Bluegrass  Katharine E. Wilkie Lincoln, M Robert Todd Lincoln President's Boy LaVere Anderson Lincoln, R Vince Lombardi Young Football Coach  Hortense Myers Lombardi, V Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Grace Hathaway Melin Longfellow, H Juliette Low Girl Scout  Helen Boyd Higgins Low, J Dolly Madison Quaker Girl Helen Albee Monsell Madison, Dolly Francis Marion Young Swamp Fox  William O. Steele Marion, F John Marshall Boy of Young America Helen Albee Monsell Marshall, J Cyrus McCormick Farmer Boy Lavinia Dobler McCormick, Cyrus William H. McGuffey Boy Reading Genius Barbara Williams McGuffey, W Maria Mitchell Girl Astronomer Grace Hathaway Melin Mitchell, M James Monroe Good Neighbor Boy Mabel Cleland Widdemer Monroe, J Samuel Morse Inquisitive Boy Dorothea J. Snow Morse, S J. Sterling Morton Arbor Day Boy Clyde B. Moore Morton, J Lucretia Mott Girl of Old Nantucket  Constance Buel Burnett Mott, L John Muir Young Naturalist  Montrew Dunham Muir, J Edward R. Murrow Young Newscaster Hortense Myers Murrow, Edward Annie Oakley Little Sure Shot  Ellen Wilson Oakley, Annie Osceola Young Seminole Indian Electa Clark Osceola Robert Peary Boy of the North Electa Clark Peary, R WILLIAM PENN Friendly Boy Miriam E. Mason Penn, William J. C. Penney Golden Rule Boy Wilma J. Hudson Penney, J OLIVER HAZARD PERRY Boy of the Sea Laura Long Perry, O Zeb Pike Boy Traveler Augusta Stevenson Pike, Z Allan Pinkerton Young Detective Kathryn Borland Pinkerton, Allan Molly Pitcher Girl Patriot Augusta Stevenson Pitcher, M POCAHONTAS Brave Girl  Pocahontas Pontiac Young Ottawa Leader Howard Henry Peckham Pontiac JOSEPH PULITZER Boy Journalist  Pulitzer, J George Pullman Young Sleeping Car Builder Elisabeth P. Myers Pullman, G Walter Reed Boy Who Wanted to Know Helen Boyd Higgins Reed, W Frederick Remington Young Artist  Clyde B. Moore Remington, F PAUL REVERE Boy of Old Boston Augusta Stevenson 1946 Revere, Paul James Whitcomb Riley Hoosier Boy  Minnie Belle Mitchell Riley, J Knute Rockne Young Athlete Guernsey Van Riper, Jr. Rockne, K WILL ROGERS Young Cowboy Guernsey Van Riper, Jr. Rogers, W Eleanor Roosevelt Courageous Girl  Ann Weil Roosevelt, Eleanor Franklin Roosevelt Boy of the Four Freedoms  Ann Weil Roosevelt, F TEDDY ROOSEVELT Young Rough Rider  Edd Winfield Parks 1953 Roosevelt, Teddy BETSY ROSS Girl of Old Philadelphia Ann Weil 1954 Ross, Betsy Babe Ruth  Baseball Boy  Ruth, Babe Sacagawea Bird Girl Flora Warren Seymour 1945 Sacagawea Carl Sandburg,   Young Singing Poet Grace Hathaway Melin Sandburg, Carl Sequoyah  Young Cherokee Guide Dorothea J. Snow Sequoyah Sitting Bull Dakota Boy Augusta Stevenson Sitting Bull John Smith Jamestown Boy Thomas Frank Barton Smith, J Young Jed Smith Westering Boy Olive W. Burt Smith, Jed John Philip Sousa Marching Boy Ann Weil Sousa, J Squanto Young Indian Hunter Augusta Stevenson Squanto Myles Standish Adventurous Boy Augusta Stevenson Standish, M Adlai Stevenson Young Ambassador Ward, Martha E. Stevenson, Adlai Harriet Beecher Stowe Connecticut Girl Mabel Cleland Widdemer Stowe, H Jeb Stuart Boy in the Saddle Gertrude Hecker Winders Stuart, J PETER STUYVESANT Boy With Wooden Shoes Stuyvesant Zach Taylor Young Rough and Ready Katharine E. Wilkie Taylor, Z Tecumseh Shawnee Boy Augusta Stevenson Tecumseh Jim Thorpe Indian Athlete Guernsey Van Riper, Jr. Thorpe, J Harry S Truman Missouri Farm Boy Wilma J. Hudson Truman, H Harriet Tubman Freedom Girl Gertrude Hecker Winders Tubman, H Lew Wallace Boy Writer Martha E. Schaaf Wallace, L John Wanamaker Boy Merchant Olive W. Burt Wanamaker, J BOOKER T. WASHINGTON Ambitious Boy Augusta Stevenson Washington, Booker T. GEORGE WASHINGTON Young Leader Augusta Stevenson 1959 Washington, George Martha Washington Girl of Old Virginia  Jean Brown Wagoner Washington, M Anthony Wayne Daring Boy Augusta Stevenson Wayne, Anthony Dan Webster Union Boy  Bradford Smith Webster, Daniel Noah Webster Boy of Words Helen Boyd Higgins Webster, N Benjamin West Gifted Young Painter  Dorothea J. Snow West, Benjamin George Westinghouse Young Inventor  Montrew Dunham Westinghouse, G Narcissa Whitman Pioneer Girl Ann Spence Warner Whitman, N Eli Whitney Boy Mechanic Dorothea J. Snow Whitney, Eli Kate Douglas Wiggin The Little Schoolteacher Miriam E. Mason Wiggin, K WOODROW WILSON Boy President Helen Albee Monsell Wilson, W F. W. Woolworth Five and Ten Boy Woolworth WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT Young Fliers Augusta Stevenson Wright, Wilbur, Orville Brigham Young Covered Wagon Boy Polly Carver Jordan Young, Brigham JOHN PETER ZENGER Young Defender of Free Press  Zenger, J © 2013 Nancy L. Ruder

Life Lists

Birdwatchers make life lists. Butterfly enthusiasts, opera afficianados, Grateful Deadheads, mountain climbers, and marathoners compile lists as well. And now, for your consideration, this admission; library junkies keep life lists, too.

The Curious Expeditions blog has a fabulous photo collection of the world's most beautiful libraries. I can only claim to have visited two of the featured libraries.

Some insomniacs count sheep. I occasionally count libraries in the middle of the night when I'm feeling entirely too hot, too cold, too old, and too broke. It's better than enumerating all the parts I've replaced on the Buick.

Perhaps it is a bad idea to put the library list into writing, as I might have to find something new to consider at 2:48 a.m. CDT.


The South Branch of the Lincoln City Libraries is the very first library I can remember. Then came a bookmobile at Lefler Junior High, and a combined city library and school library inside Lefler. I would help my mom choose picture books for my little brother who was particularly fond of a story about the pigs, Roly and Poly.

The main library for Lincoln at 14th and N Streets opened when I was a young reader in the early Sixties. I was quite fond of saying, "Bennett Martin". My class took a field trip to the library, and each student got a library card. Then we rushed to the shelves to check out our first book. Obviously only because it began with "A", I took home a biography of Jane Addams of Hull House, a most depressing book from the Bobbs-Merrill Childhood of Famous Americans series.

I spent many pleasant hours in the Bethany branch in sixth grade doing make-up work after a long illness. I was trying to complete my "February Folder," an assignment to research a different topic for each day in February. Bethany was a quiet branch, and my mom was comfortable leaving me there to do my work for hours at a time. No cell phone. No tutor. A dime for the payphone in case of emergency.

Gere Branch is another nice Lincoln library. Lincoln City Libraries total: 6

The most important library in my life was the Carnegie Library in Pierce, Nebraska, where my grandma was the town librarian. Every visit to Pierce meant being Grandma's little assistant until 1966 when she broke her hip. Pierce total: 1 Subtotal: 7

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Library System 8, or 7 (depending how you count Special Collections) Subtotal: 15 or 14

Love
CYThompson
Architecture
Engineering which had previously housed the Undergraduate Library known as UGL(y).
Geology which had an appropriately subterranean feel.
Special Collections including the Mari Sandoz Collection
Law

Omaha Public Libraries 4 Subtotal 18 or 19
Benson Baby Jeffy's first library
Swanson Preschool Jeffy's first storytime
W Dale Clark
Millard

Libraries on vacation 12 Subtotal 30 or 31
National Institute of Health Library in Bethesda, MD
Library of Congress One of Curious Expedition's favorites.
Folger Shakespeare Library Another Curious Expedition favorite.
Chicago Art Institute Library, not voluntarily, to research Giacometti
Red River, N.M. Public Library lets tourists borrow books
Luling, TX
Salado, TX
Port Isabel, TX
Michigan State
Memorial Library at U Wisconsin-Madison
U New Mexico Zimmerman Library
Bunting Visual Resources Library (slide library)

Presidential libraries 2 Subtotal 32, or let's just call it 33
Truman
Johnson A free, clean public restroom after a long drive to Austin!

Oklahoma Libraries 2 Subtotal 35
Edmond Preschool Mikey's first storytime
OKC

School libraries 7 Subtotal 42

Eastridge
Lefler
Lincoln East
Morton
Sunset
Haskell
Davis
Haggard

Libraries close to home 12 Subtotal 54
Richardson, TX
Irving, TX
Dallas
Forest Green
Plano Library Branches--
Harrington
Haggard
Schimelpfenig
Davis
Parr
Highland Park Library
UTD McDermott
Wylie Smith

Libraries for dreaming in the future, but I'm feeling pretty sleepy now.
Seattle

Louis Kahn's Exeter Library at Yale

© 2009 Nancy L. Ruder

We Heart Larry!

Back-to-back sessions at the Larry Book Festival led to another good discussion about jobs. After a reading of Ice Cream Larry (which I consider the least successful picture book in the the series), I told the kids we would read a bonus story. We want to get through all the books before I have to return them to the library, I explained.

"Whoa," one kid said, "I hope my library has Larry books!"

"Whoa, me too!," the rest said.

I explained that a librarian's job is to help you find the books you want. You can go right up to the librarian and ask for help finding books about Larry the polar bear. Even better, you can ask for help finding books by Daniel Pinkwater, so you can check out the Wallpaper From Space book, too. We closed our eyes and imagined a glass of water turning pink so we could remember Pinkwater. A librarian gets money to buy blueberry muffins by helping children and grown-ups find the books they want to check out.

The children loved Sleepover Larry. Most kids have gone on a sleepover with grandma or friends by the time they are four or five. They were excited to find a bunny in the book along with Larry, his brother Roy, Bear Number One, and Bear Number Three.

The dress-up party in the hospitality suite of the book festival was a big success. Kids took turns wearing a beret, dark sunglasses, and my mom's London Fog raincoat, pretending to be our favorite bear. That's what Larry wears when he goes walking around Bayonne, New Jersey to meet Roy at the zoo or have blueberry pancakes and sundaes. Other kids wore groovy beads and snapped their fingers like the bongo beatnik bears at Cafe Mama Bear. The teachers snapped digital party pics for this adventure in pretend silliness.



I refuse to serve codfish ice cream bars at snacktime on the final day of the book festival. We'll have blueberry mini-muffins instead. We'll make a collage poster with the party pics and magazine clippings of real polar bears. Then we'll wind up the festival with Dancing Larry.

© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder

Arabella Miller

Found this fresh, fun picture book on the New Book Shelf at my public library, and checked it out for my preschool class. The kids loved it, and I couldn't wait for them to ask me for an encore reading. You might say, "It has a good beat; you can dance to it," if it were on Preschool Bandstand with Dick Clark. The large format and clear, vibrant illustrations made it perfect for circle time.

I returned the book before I learned that "Little Arabella Miller" is a favorite British nursery rhyme and finger play. Clare Jarrett's picture book expands on the nursery rhyme to show the life cycle of the caterpillar.

There are several online sources for the words and actions of the nursery rhyme:

Little Arabella Miller had a fuzzy caterpillar (Tickle palm with two fingers)
First it crawled up on her mother (Walk fingers up left arm)
Then upon her baby brother (Walk fingers up right arm)
They said, "Arabella Miller! (Walk fingers up over head)
Put away your caterpillar!" (Hide hands behind back)

It would be fun creating a finger play for Jarrett's new verses. I hope Arabella arrives on your library's New Book Shelf. Check it out!

© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder

Embroidery hoops

My elementary art students have begun a major project that will become their Mothers Day gift. They are learning the art concepts of line, pattern, texture, density, emphasis, rhythm, repetition, contrast, and variation through an embroidery project. I have only my sample to display, but the students are creating knock-em-dead pictures. We painted with plain old watercolors on muslin after tracing our drawings with fine-point pastel Sharpie pens. They are just beginning their stitching under the guidance of their classroom teacher. Since the project is a gift for their mothers, the boys are as gung-ho as the girls. The children find stitching a nice way to start or end a school day. I do, too!



Chain stitch, blanket stitch, Lazy Daisy, French knots. The big lure of embroidery when I was their age was the delicious names for the stitches. There was something mildly Parisian and risque in being able to stitch French knots. I related it to the rare event of having a babysitter when my parents went to see "Irma LaDuce" at the movie theater.



In Mrs. Alschwede's third grade room our "library corner" was devoted to the Childhood of Famous Americans book series. I read oh so many biographies of Quaker children saying "thee" and "thou", wearing gray, rolling hoops, and embroidering samplers. We recorded our wholesome literary endeavors IN CURSIVE on big index cards in blue ink. This was such a feat that I saved the index cards for nearly forty years. I remember so clearly Mrs. Alschwede's big nose and the fact that she commuted from Valparaiso, Nebraska to teach us beginning multiplication, and to read aloud about Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb on the day Kennedy was assassinated.



Third-graders rode a school bus to the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown for a field trip. The library was very new. The librarian helped us get library cards, and showed us where to find more wholesome juvenile biographies to check out. I know I chose Abigail Adams and "Jane Addams of Hull House". We tried to write our names in painful pencil cursive on the skinny lines of the book card. The librarian stamped the due date. Ca-chinga went the stamp. Ooh. I can smell the purple ink.




© 2007 Nancy L. Ruder

Mother of the Library Books

When I was volunteering in the school library when my boys were little, the bilingual students called me, "La madre de los libros librarios", the Mother of the Library Books. I've always like being the Mother of the Library Books, and the mom of the library boys.

I started reading chapter books to my kids when J.T. was five and M.J. was two and a half. I admit that I started this suppertime ritual for selfish reasons. Their dad was doing a lot of traveling for work, and also for his karate hobby. He headed off for a month in Korea when S.C. was barely two months old. If I read picture books during meals, the boys were too distracted by the illustrations to eat. Chapter books kept them listening while munching on all their finger foods. Yes, they were slow, and sometimes picky eaters. Reading kept me from feeling frustrated.

My boys liked the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I heard them say, "Let's play Laura and Mary" as often as "Let's play firemen". It didn't occur to them that Laura and Mary were girls. They put a stuffed animal under the bed to be Jack, the brindle bulldog, and used the headboard of the bed for the driver's seat of their covered wagon. The same headboard made a good hook and ladder firetruck.

After Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and On the Banks of Plum Creek, we read Farmer Boy. That became their favorite.

Our suppertime chapters continued when we moved to Oklahoma. It kept things calm on evenings when my spouse was away teaching tae kwon do. Stories made the transition from supper to baths and bedtime somewhat less chaotic. Other read-aloud favorites were A Cricket in Times Square, The Enormous Egg, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Winnie-the-Pooh.

This mother is still learning, and still reading aloud. I started reading Little House in the Big Woods to my culturally-diverse students during their snack time. What I remembered about the book was the self-sufficiency, how the family worked together, the strong character of the Ingalls parents. I remembered how Laura and Mary played with their corncob dolls amidst the pumpkins and squash in the attic without any Disney princesses or registered-trademark movie tie-ins.

Oops! The whole first chapter is about hanging deer carcasses in the trees so the wolves don't get them, shooting a bear, smoking and salting meat and fish, and slaughtering the family pig complete with extensive details about making sausage and headcheese. The little vegetarian kids were staring at me like deer in the headlights! Speaking of which, I don't think I'll be reading Bambi anytime soon.