Boredom is nothing new. It's a common ailment that afflicts all kids. It begins before the youngsters walk and talk and continues until they leave the nest. Undeniably, television and computer games fill some of the time, but those pacifiers get very old after a while. Of course, you know my solution – books. There's nothing like getting lost in a spellbinding story while sitting in front of the air conditioning or under a giant shade tree on a hot summer day. It's a cure for boredom that never fails. It may sound old-fashioned, yet it has worked forever and will continue to work as long as we pass the secret down to subsequent generations. One way to cultivate this solution to boredom is to allow the children and teenagers the freedom to choose books they find interesting, peppered with suggested titles you recall from your childhood. Exposing the kids to a variety of reading material from both the past and the present expands their minds and their worlds to include different perspectives, ideas, cultures, and lifestyles from the present as well as earlier times. It's important to encourage young readers to try out some of the classics – books that have been around for a while. These stories have withstood the test of time and give the kids a taste of what life was like before iPhones. That not only includes the late 20th century but further back when going to town entailed hitching up a horse and wagon. Of course, with older children, especially teens, your suggestions automatically indicate a book they want to stay from. Far away! That's why it's more effective if you start augmenting their collection before your kids consider you too antiquated to know anything. I hate to admit it, but I don't remember too much about the books I loved as a little tike, except for Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes and a very battered copy of Cowboy Sam. So, as a grown-up, I've attempted to make up for my poor memory by reading beloved stories by Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry, Beatrice Potter, and many other classic authors to my preschoolers and elementary school students. The following list of classic books may trigger your memory and be good candidates to get for your child or grandchild (or yourself). Preschool Corduroy by Don Freeman The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Meyer The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey Elementary and Middle Grade Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C S Lewis Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Heidi by Johanna Spyri Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery Pippy Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Charlotte's Web by E.B. White Teens Little Women by Louisa May Alcott To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls Jane Eyre by Jane Austen Moby Dick by Herman Melville Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Lord of the Flies by William Golding Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain This is only a starting point. So many lovely classics are sitting out there just waiting to be read. Go ahead. Think of a book that had an impact on you and suggest it to your child. Remember, asking your child to read a classic doesn't mean you're asking them to not read books they enjoy -- but rather to diversify their reading and try something new! Blossoms in the Snow by Robert DeBurgh is a collection of poetry compiled over 50+ years of observing life with all its twists and turns, and bumps and bruises. His fascination with nature, aviation, science, and history provides the backdrop for his haiku, free verse, experimental, and traditional poems. It is, however, his life experiences interwoven into each poem that shape each piece into a tale which grabs and holds the reader’s interest, possibly bringing a tear to the eye when Bob’s old dog crosses the Rainbow Bridge. Take a few minutes to read some of his poetry. You’ll be glad you did! Side note: Robert DeBurgh is Greta’s late husband. Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092SXPNW5/ Universal link - viewbook.at/blossomsinthesnow Guest author Laurie Boris shares her journey that resulted in her latest release Boychik. Boychik was primarily the result of creative frustration. I’d been writing a contemporary novella about an elderly artist and his caretaking daughter. I adored my characters and could write forever about them, but the plot wasn’t taking shape. Sometimes when a story isn’t working, I’ll freewrite about the characters’ pasts and see what comes up. Before I knew it, I was writing about a father and son working side by side in the basement of a kosher deli in Brooklyn during the Great Depression. That’s when it hit me: I’d started the story three generations too late! And there, with the corned beef brine sloshing, the metal tongs clicking against stainless steel tubs, the silent conversation between father and son began. Boychik was born. My first thought was “OMG, I’m writing historical fiction. I don’t know if I can do this.” I enjoy reading historical fiction, but writing it? It seemed too hard. All that research. All those facts to get straight. I know how picky I get when I read historical fiction – if the slightest thing feels anachronistic, it kicks me out of the story. After that panic attack cooled, I realized the wealth of information I could bring to this story just from memory. Both of my parents grew up in Brooklyn during the thirties and forties. I grew up listening to their stories. About my maternal grandfather who timed trips based on how many cigars he could smoke. About my great aunts who talked in Yiddish, thinking my mother wouldn’t understand. (She did.) They told me about going to the candy store and riding streetcars and spending glorious afternoons at the movies. They talked about playing stickball and jump rope in the streets, getting into fights with the Irish kids…and the food. They had so many wonderful memories of the food. Roasted sweet potatoes wrapped in newspaper, dripping with butter, bought from street vendors. Pickles straight from the barrel, delicatessens on practically every corner. Also, my father’s parents met at a restaurant where my Grandpa Dave (whose seventeen-year-old self adorns the cover of Boychik) was a short order cook. Later they ran a luncheonette. Grandpa sat me down one day and revealed the secrets of his coleslaw and how he made chicken soup—a story that always began the same way: “First, you take a nice chicken…” From all of their words and memories, I could see, taste, hear, and smell everything about those old neighborhoods. And with that base of confidence, I began to write. Capturing the past felt less intimidating then, and when I needed more information — beyond my parents’ recollections — I’d head to Mama Google or my wonderful local library. Because Boychik has a subplot about the mob, I read about Jewish gangsters. Many donated to Jewish Palestine, which would become Israel, as a way to give back some of their ill-gotten gain while dodging the IRS. Because Eli loves gangster movies and wants to be a screenwriter, I studied the history of Warner Brothers. Jack Warner was particularly colorful, and prone to firing employees with impunity…then hiring them back. Like James Cagney, whom he’d fired seven times. He’d also once hired William Faulkner, who quickly realized he was wrong for the job and quit in a Faulkneresque letter. Because of all the food in the story, I learned how to turn salmon into lox, brisket into pastrami, and why you can’t serve an egg cream in a kosher delicatessen. And because I’m picky like that, I studied the fashions of the day and when certain movies were in theaters so I (hopefully) wouldn’t make one of those errors that would make “reader-me” cringe. The story was a lot of fun to write, and sinking into Eli’s and Evelyn’s worlds was a welcome escape from current events. But more important was the time I spent with my parents, asking them questions about what Brooklyn had been like, what their lives had been like during the Depression. As they talked about their younger selves, and how their families made do, I gathered up stories I’d never heard before. That, I will always treasure. Perhaps I’ll use more of their stories when I write the sequel. Wait. Did I say sequel? Apparently I’ve become so fond of writing historical fiction that I’m doing it again. There should be a word in Yiddish for that — for when you dread something then give it a chance and learn to love it. But I’ll have to ask my mother.
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I will read forever because it lets me visit in my mind the worlds that I will never be able to see; it helps me put away the stresses of the day and relax into the rhythm of the story before me; it lets me bring to the surface and experience without regrets those feelings I hide away; it lets me re-experience the thrill of first love through someone else's eyes; it keeps my mind juiced so that it will never desert me; it is always there for me even when there's no one else. I will read forever no matter whether it is print or digital because the words will always call to me. ~ A Sassy Scribbler