This place is not appropriate for children, Mommy!

Can I just say what a horrible place a bookstore is? Okay, I know I just can’t say that and not back it up. And as a writer of books myself, I might just be shooting myself in the foot for saying such. But heck, I’ve got two of them. Feet, I mean. I do realize that it is not quite like having one of my kidneys removed, but I’ve decided I will sacrifice my foot (the left one to be specific) for the sake of children and their cognitive and soulful development. Because my building frustration has truly gotten the best of me.

Bookstores (and let me qualify that by saying the “box” bookstores, you know the ones I am talking about, not your local indie place) are more and more the most insidious places. Increasingly, I am feeling they are the places my son might call, “not appropriate for kids, Mommy.”

I challenge any brave soul among us to walk into the biggest of culprits ⎯Borders, Barnes and Noble, Target (she says in hushed tones)⎯ and find an upfront display that does not include any of the following: holiday tie-ins, corporate tie-ins, characters from a movie, or even worse those “books” that will make your children “smart” because they have BUTTONS.

No, no, don’t listen to me. Please just go visit your local library instead. Here’s a tiny starter list of great reads you might find there:



The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater










The Dot by Peter Reynolds












Frederick by Leo Lionni













If…by Sarah Perry












Ish by Peter Reynolds












Miss Rumphius by Barabara Cooney











The Maggie B. by Irene Haas












Mud is Cake by Pam Munoz Ryan











Oh, Were they Ever Happy! by Peter Spier












Purple, Green and Yellow by Robert Munsch












Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran













Sky Castle by Sandra Hanken














Weslandia by Paul Fleischman











And you could always request your library get this one too. :)