Pain and Suffering

Two days ago I spent a half hour updating this blog, then went to upload it. Blogger was doing some kind of maintenance, and I lost the whole thing. Do not tell me I should have saved my work.

Then yesterday I redid only half the original post because I was working on a laptop for the first time because both our other computers were being used. Can you believe? In most families the PC gathers dust, but here two aren't enough for us. Anyway, who were laptops designed for? Children? It was agony typing on it.

This Could be the Start of Something Decent

I read the first in a series called The Stink Files by Holm and Hamel, who are into being mysterious. The book is a clever takeoff on spy stories with a cat as a James Bond type. There are two more books, so far, in the series.

Today's Lizard Motel Update

I picked up a very nice looking copy of The Pigman by Paul Zindel on Saturday because Barbara Feinberg talks about it in Lizard Motel. Feinberg is a great one for asking questions and then dropping them without answering them or even giving much of a discussion. In relation to The Pigman she raises questions about whether or not there are times in children's lives when a problem book can have great meaning for them and whether having edgy, rebelious books assigned by a teacher, along with worksheets and assignments ruins them.

I think those are both good questions. I wish Feinberg had talked about ways to get the right book to the right child at the right time and how to save the reading experience from being beaten to death at school. But she didn't.

I, myself, think I've only recently become developmentally ready for Virgina Woolf. And I don't know if I'll ever be developmentally ready for Kate Chopin.