Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for May 20, 2024

She calls her brother “creepy,” yet believes she’s completely sane for talking to a piece of paper she wrote on. Now, using the “sibling moment” justification, it seems legit.

When I was in school, we didn’t have reading lists. But that didn’t stop me.

Uh-oh… Zoe is up to something…. again!

Zoe, your being weird now.

Amazing. She used to hate Summer Reading lists.

We always had a summer reading list in Elementary school. We had to pick two books out of the list. I loved going to the Library during summer vacation. I would wind up going back to the Library to read more books on the list. Since there were not many girls to play with in my neighborhood, it was great time for reading.

“Reading is Fundamental”, Hammie, or so I heard!

Let’s see… Zoey’s reading list includes “Tattling for Pros”, “10 Tips for Expert Tattling”, and “The Tattling Chronicles”.

The only time I had a summer reading assignment was in my sophomore year of high school, and it wasn’t official. My English teacher loved Harlequin romances & I thought they were lame. She asked me if I’d actually read any & I said no, so she [dared/suggested/assigned/add your verb] me to read just a couple. As luck would have it my mother had picked up a whole small box of ‘em – she dealt with consignment shops as a sideline – and I asked to borrow it. I read about a dozen of them, keeping a log as proof. When I went back in the fall the teacher asked me if I did it. I handed her the list and said, "Yes…and they’re STILL lame." She was a fun teacher.

I had a summer reading list in Junior High (Catholic School). Not in Elementary School (public) or High School (both Catholic and public). I was a voracious reader, but could never get through those 3 books, because I was also afflicted with Oppositional Defiance Syndrome.

My summers were spent mainly playing outside with my siblings and neighbor kids and swimming. When my son was growing up, he didn’t have a summer reading list but we went to the library at least once a week and he checked out an armload of books each time. Great memories. I still love reading to this day and always have a novel going (and read a lot of “current events” on line and in the Epoch Times) and he so does he.

What’s that peeking out of Zoe’s backpack? Thought at first it might be Wren but don’t see any eyes. Wonder if Hammie’s up to something?

We didn’t have reading lists in the 70’s. I love reading. I just didn’t like reading what they wanted me to read. I was reading Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc and for some reason English teachers never really consider scifi to fit into their definition of reading.

Didn’t need reading lists when I was a kid. We had some great literature, classics for kids and older.

Just what does it inspire you to want to do, Hammie?

If a child wants to read over the summer, that’s great. But let them choose what books they want to read.

Teachers should remember that during those summer months, the kids are not their students and they should have no say in what they do with their time. That is up to the parents, who should encourage them to read, but not force them.

John Steinbeck, in TRAVELS WITH CHARLIE, mentioned that his parents kept books in a glass-walled case. The books were obviously being protected, and his parents did not offer them…so he swiped them. They neither encouraged or DIScouraged him from doing so. Steinbeck speculated that if adults “forbade” reading books in the house, the children might steal them and find secret joy.

There’s a little g irl in BALDO Zoe should meet

Me. Literally me. We don’t have reading lists but I love love to read! I finish a good 300-400 pg book in a day or two! I do get teased/bullied about this fact quite a bit.

Growing up in the 50’s & 60’s we did not have reading lists for summer, but we did have a book mobile that came to the school parking lot once a week. Loved going and getting new books to read and having a driving Librarian that would suggest new authors for me. Still reading new books every week!

Ever since I got a Kindle my TBR has gotten out of hand. Now that I’m a NEET, I’m hoping to put a dent in it.

Some people do read Hammie.