Summer Reading?

So it may be clear by now that I like children's books. I find them to be some of the most honest, most profound literature around. That, and Peanuts comics. So, at the risk of seeming impossibly arrogant by foisting my own book-lists upon the world, I would like to make this statement in their defense, and suggest a few good ones.

I have never read Goosebumps, or the Babysitters Club, or Nancy Drew, so in all honesty I can't say anything about those Juvenile Section staples. Maybe you can, or maybe they belong there. But I can say that Julie of the Wolves, and Bridge to Terebithia, and The Wild Children are all books that no adult should be ashamed to read, or reread as the case may be.

If you haven't had a chance to page through them yet, well, I happily suggest you get busy . These are some of the best children's books to cut your teeth on, and the ladies behind the counter won't judge you. They know a good book, and a thing or two.

And you might find some clear-sighted descriptions like this:

'The sun darkened and then disappeared altogether. The temperature began to drop, the wind stilled, a line of flat, grey clouds formed over the canyon and hung there. Presently they began to release snow, dusting the tops of the canyon rim and all the crags and spires of the higher landscape. Some of the stuff sifted to the ground but melted almost as fast as it hit. In the deep fastness of the deepening cold I heard a sound I remembered from another time in my life in another wild place- the low, course bellowing and the clear, high-toned bugling of the wapiti.' -Cleaver, Dust of the Earth

I can't really describe why I like this so much, except that I have been to Wyoming in the fall, and heard the mating call of the elk. It seemed to me that this passage struck that moment right.

It is also written in beautiful prose, bordering on the poetic- something not usually expected of children's literature, but that is certainly present in the best.

Yes, there are some things better than People magazine. Try elk mating calls. Try Pippi Longstocking.