From: Peghowell at aol.com <Peghowell>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:48:27 EDT

Hi

I always loved the orange books as well. Not only were women included, but if I remember a good number of the people were not written about elsewhere. I still look for the orange covers at old book shops. I don't like the read white and blue covers they came out in recently, and naturally could not have them on my library shelves because they were fictionalized. The interesting thing is that other biographies of the time were fictionalized as well, and even award winners, such as the Abraham Lincoln biography, did not mention that he was killed.

Looking at the list of life changing books also made me think about how the children of today will look back on titles. The Washington Post ran a recent list of favorite books of children in the area. Two of them mentioned Kite Runner and The De Vinci Code. These were 10 and 11 year old children. I worry about what they might have been missing in their reading and also if their parents realize the good children's literature they might have missed. I could never have gone through my childhood illnesses without having Black Beauty read to me. I can't imagine listening to the De Vinci code,

Peggy Howell Retired librarian children's literature insturctor
Received on Tue 30 May 2006 01:48:27 PM CDT