Books, books, books

Books have been in my thoughts a lot lately.  I guess they will be since I plan on making the library my future career.  After reading some essays and speeches by a children's librarian, I felt I needed to expand my exposure to children's literature.  Actually, I love children's lit.  I prefer it over adult books.

There are many classical children's literature I've never read, so I decided it was time to start.

This week, I read Heidi, by Johanna Spyri, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau.  I loved them all!  OK, City of Ember isn't a "classic", but it was a fun read.  I saw the movie when it came out several years ago and I really liked it. The book, while a little slow in some places, was great.

I see why Heidi is such a loved book.  I had seen parts of one of the movies when I was a kid and I just wasn't interested in the story at all.  The book is lovely.  It just made me want to hop on a plane to Switzerland and go climb the Alps.

The Phantom Tollbooth is fun and interesting.  I was first introduced to The Phantom Tollbooth through the old movie that was made in the 60s.  No, I wasn't alive in the 60s, but it must have come on television at some point and my sister and I loved it.  It's a fun movie and really sticks to the books quite well.  Of course, not everything that our hero, Milo, does in the book is put into the movie, but what is there remains true to the book. You learn a lot and you learn the importance of learning. I never knew what a dodecahedron was until I saw The Phantom Tollbooth. 

The current children's book I'm reading is Mary Poppins Dr. P.L. Travers and Mary Shepard.  I'm only one chapter in, but it's quite different from the beloved Disney movie.  I look forward to reading it more. 

My son recently found a book called Five Alien Elves by Gregory Maguire.  It is most certainly not a classic, but it looks like very funny reading.  I'll be diving into that book soon, too.