From: Peggy Rader <rader004>
Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 08:45:47 -0500

Several disconnected thoughts:

Marion -- I thought I was the only one in the world who had ever read Mistress Masham's Repose! It was a gift to me from my fifth grade teacher who knew I loved to read and that I had few books at home of my own. Most of those I had, I suppose, are crossovers of the classic variety -- Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, the Alice books, the Red Pony.

I hate to lower the tone of the conversation, but I think one would have to include Stephen King's books as major crossovers in the adult-to-kid direction. Although I don't yet allow my 12-year-old to read them, I know many grade-school and middle-school kids who LOVE King's books for good or ill.

While many of the crossover books discussed so far tend to be intellectually engaging to adults, I have to confess with some trepidation (I would hate to be seen as doing anything "cute") that I frequently give Rosemary Wells' set of little books, Voyage to the Bunny Planet, to adult friends who are having a rough time for one reason or another. I don't know -- perhaps this is not generally true -- but I find some children's books that are enjoyed by adults are those that allow us to tap into emotions that we are told to put away as we head toward adulthood. I haven't read Henry Potter yet, but from comments made here, I suspect it may be a book that encourages delight and wonder -- and perhaps a triumph over adversity that we all know, as adults, doesn't happen often enough in the "real world."


"Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another."
-- G.K. Chesterton

Peggy J. Rader Communications/Media Relations College of Education and Human Development 117 Burton Hall, 178 Pillsbury Dr. SE University of Minnesota Minneapolis MN 55455 612b6?82 rader004 at tc.umn.edu
Received on Wed 09 Jun 1999 08:45:47 AM CDT