What do Temple Bailey and Barbara Park have in common?

"A crib is a bed with bars on the side of it.  It's kind of like a cage at the zoo.  Except with a crib, you can put your hand through the bars.  And the baby won't pull you in and kill you."  Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business by Barbara Park

You know you're a Mom (or perhaps an elementary school teacher, or, okay, maybe a librarian) when your book list includes more Junie B. Jones, Hardy Boys, and Pokemon titles than those of a more "adult level"...



Reading has always been a grand treat for me: to escape somewhere, preferably secluded and cozy (be it real heat from the huge solar orb in the sky or merely a fuzzy blanket amidst a cushy pillow fort).  To almost-romantically delve into a new and different existence in a new and different world. 

Although lately my reading respites appear random and attached to any moment I am alone, usually for about 13 seconds before a whoopin' battle cry from one or both children pulls me from the throne.

Half an article from the local newspaper, three quarters of a column from my alumni magazine...just enough to whet my appetite and yet not enough for me to recall where I was at in the article the next time I am back at the helm of the W.C.

I am not sure how the significance of reading and its importance as an escape, a learning ground for exciting new knowledge, a place where exquisite ideas loomed in hopefulness, and travels around the world intrigued, became so  integral to who I am. 

Mom reads.  A lot.  Mostly harlequin novels that steam up her glasses and keep her up late at night.  Was it her influence?

Though I think I recall her reading aloud to me from a book that now hides on a shelf amongst world map books and French dictionaries.  The Blue Window by Temple Bailey.  Perhaps I have kept the wrong torn and stained fiction?  As I carefully peel apart the sepia sheets I turn to Chapter 7: The Way To Win A Woman  and I really, really wonder?  Conceivably I am completely, totally wrong about it?  Chapter 9: Cock-O'-The-Walk?  Hmmm. Really?   Just a novel yanked from some box about to be discarded and somehow remembered in an altered way?

Perhaps a "re-read" (or first time read so be it) is at hand....

Until then...watch out Junie B. Jones 'cause three of us are chasing your kindergarten snippy-ness!