Too many choices?
There always seems to be some concern about whether children are reading enough and are saying that kids today are too distracted or too busy to read. Before you point your finger at the Internet as the culprit a new report from says that despite the abundance of information, 鈥渉alf of all children think there are not enough 鈥榬eally good books鈥� from which to choose.鈥�
Maybe the problem is that kids these days have too many choices.
One of my favorite summertime memories from growing up was visiting the bookmobile that used to roll into our Madison, Wisc., neighborhood midweek. I鈥檇 head down there with my mom and a canvas bag slung over my shoulder. The only restriction: I had to be able to carry what I wanted to take home. For me it wasn鈥檛 just about finding new books. It was the experience of squeezing into a narrow trailer that smelled of old paper and hunting through the stacks to choose my own titles. It never occurred to me that I wouldn鈥檛 find something I liked. Every book offered the potential of a new adventure.
Some of the books that got carried home in my tote on a regular basis were Marjorie Weinman Sharmat鈥檚 鈥淣ate the Great鈥� detective stories. And it seems that puzzling through life is still very much part of being a kid, judging by Yvonne Zipp鈥檚 review of four new books about boys and girls who solve mysteries.
The bookmobile that serviced my neighborhood is . But there is one mystery that still troubles me today: Why aren't there ?
Marjorie Kehe is on vacation this week.
