Do Books Help You Grow Up?

I liked this article in the New York Times. I liked how it squeaked in the idea that children's literature should challenge and introduce them to new things, and usher them towards growing up...and I liked that it asked where Max, from Where the Wild Things Are would be now.  My guess is that he's living in Brooklyn, a semi-angry Mets fan, probably divorced and eating alone a lot.

I'm going to be thinking all day about the notion that children that read are introduced to the practice on the laps of their parents.  If you want a reader, you create one.  Remember Kathleen Kelly's line in You've Got Mail?

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does. "

The day has just begun and now I can't wait to bring home some new books and to sit down with Zed.