Snobbery (yikes, this is long!)

[Trina]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Jennifer Piersol" <jenP_97 at y...> wrote:
> I've always encountered this attitude myself.  It's almost driven 
me to being a closet-kiddie-lit-reader.  I remember being, hmm.... 12 
> years old, maybe? going to my public library, picking out about 3 
> Louisa May Alcott books (I think it was the two Rose books and 
> perhaps Jo's Boys, but I'm not sure), plunking them on the counter, 
> and promptly feeling stupid (remember, I'm 12!) when she says to 
me,  "Don't you think you're a little old to be reading this?"

It took me 3 years and 3 tries to finish reading Little Women.  From 
the the time I was in the 4th or 5th grade all my teachers, 
librarians, other adults who knew I was a voracious reader told me I 
*had* to read LW because I would *love* it.  Well, I didn't.  I 
finally managed to get through it in the 8th grade and was less than 
impressed.  After this disappointment, I took the term "classic" 
and "must read" with a margarita-sized grain of salt.  I read what I 
like, whether or not it is "literature" or puff pieces.  I have come 
to realize that I have learned a lot more from the books I have read 
for pure enjoyment than the ones that I have been required to read 
(although on occasion, I have enjoyed the required reading). 

And isn't LMA age-appropriate for a 12 yo girl, regardless of her 
reading abilities?  I always scored off the charts in my reading 
levels; it didn't always mean I was ready for Dickens.  

Trina, fixing to write her blurb about "My favorite book as child" 
for our school's celebration of National Children's Book Week.