RAE’S READS

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This year (2025) finds me with 53 years of teaching “under my belt.” I have taught all levels from pre-K “(library lady” or “book lady”–volunteer) to juniors, seniors, and graduate students enrolled in my Advanced Writing class at the university where I have just completed 34 years. My first paying teaching job was junior high, and I spent 13 years with ages 12-13, the “difficult years.” I had some of the “funnest” experiences with this age group. When I was no longer the “young, fun teacher,” I taught in an elementary school setting before sixth graders went on to junior high, teaching language arts blocs, an assignment that was a “dream-fit” for me. After completing graduate school in my 40s, I went on to community college, then university teaching. This past fall I accepted a part-time teaching job at Apogee Gulf Coast Schools in its first year at the Alvin campus. After my Better Half died n 2022, I achieved a lifelong dream: opening a bookstore of my own, Rae’s Reads. A year later, I sold the house we had lived in for 47 years and moved into the bookstore. My goal is to circulate and repurpose books. Just as teaching is “in my blood,” so is a passion for reading, writing, libraries, and everything bookish. This blog will be open to anyone who loves books, promotes literacy and wants to “come out and play.”

SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

Just as Saturdays on morning TV in the 50s and 60s were reserved for kids’ cartoons, PWR reserves Saturday mornings for reviews of kids’ books. Today’s middle school age novel deals with the current hoo-ha about what kids are allowed to read, and who has the power to take kids’ books off school libraries’s shelves.

AmyAnn is the eldest of three kids and deals with the everyday catastrophes and responsibilities of being the oldest of three sisters. Her parents depend on her to give in and take care of her two sisters, perhaps to an unfair degree. One thing AmyAnn can depend on is her school library and Mrs. Jones, her school librarian, to provide sanctuary and security when life at home gets crazy.

When AmyAnn attempts to check out her favorite book, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, she finds it has been removed from the shelf. Mrs. Jones tells her a parent–one parent–has asked it be removed from the shelf because it encouraged children to run away from home and to lie, cheat, and steal as they did so. AmyAnn has checked out and read the book many times because she has often wished she could run away from her problems at home, but she has never seriously considered doing so. As the one persnickety parent has many books banned, AmyAnn finds herself buying the banned book and storing them in her locker which becomes the B.B. L. L., the Banned Books Locker Library. Students borrow the books, and AmyAnn has many close calls before eventually getting in a great deal of trouble. How she gets out of it, which includes speaking before the school board, in attempt to restore the banned books, is a story the reader will find him/herself holding their breath over as they turn the pages.

It is definitely a darned good read for kids and adults alike! Its topic is certainly timely, and its message that only a kid’s parents should be able to make decisions on what their kids are allowed or not allowed to read, is a good life lesson for kids, parents, and schools alike.

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One response to “SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS”

  1. beth Avatar
    beth

    very timely and sounds like a great read

    Liked by 1 person

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