Tesseracts and Madeleine L'Engle

This is the best explanation of tessering that I've ever encountered.

Some of the girls and moms have read L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time already, but it's the kind of book that bears rereading.

So, here is my vote for one of our book discussions!

Are Young Adult Books Too Adult?

Alli of YPulse questions, "The YA audience is becoming heavily adult and I wonder how much of the material is written for us grown-ups?"

I don't know the answer, yet.

We're just starting to explore Young Adult books, but we already found a few that my 12-year-old daughter is NOT ready for. Books that are heavy on boy/girl relationships; well, we'll get to them some day. But, NOT YET!

Figuring out which YA books are OK is getting more difficult all the time. She can read at an adult level, and I want to encourage her to branch out, but at the same time, she doesn't need to rush to deal with some mature subjects.

Some YA books are OK, some aren't.

And, it's not always clear if a book is even YA. Is it YA just because that's the aisle we found it in at Barnes & Noble?

Also, is a twelve-year-old a young adult? Are these books even for that age group? Is she too young for the books, or are the books too old for her?

I've heard that some parents pre-read books just in case, but I don't know anyone who has that kind of time. Mostly, we research a book, or at least read the description, and use that information to determine if it's appropriate.

And then there are the books that looked sort of OK at the store, like Peaches, but then my daughter started reading it and decided she wasn't ready/interested.

I could keep her from reading anything that I haven't pre-read and approved, or I can let her choose what interests her and hope for the best.

I'm choosing the second option. We read together, sharing the stories, dealing with the issues and questions they provoke, and hope for the best.

A History of Children's Books

I just read The History of Children's Books from the January 1888 edition of The Atlantic Monthly. Of course, the history only covers up to the mid 1800s.

Well, babes, children's literature has come a long way.

Some of the classic fairy tales, myths, and fables are still fun and relevant, but a lot of the little that was available for children would put us to sleep now.

Believe In The Kindle

Amazon's Kindle has only been available for a few weeks, but already creative sorts have found new ways to push the envelope of this digital reader technology.

Daniel Orr, writer and programmer, is offering a Beta version of his latest book, Believe, for just 99 cents through the super fast Kindle connection.

I can't wait to see what's next!