Books I read as a kid

Big surprise, but I was a voracious reader as a kid.  I got to thinking this morning about books I loved.  My favorite book was "Highland Rebel" by Sally Watson.  The little girl in it was just so different, quite a tomboy and she got into and out of trouble because of it.  I loved the Caroline Haywood "Betsy" books.  I read all the "Bucky Button's"  I remember reading a series of books with a little girl who was oddly named Katie John- John was NOT her last name, as I recall.

I looked these books up on the internet to see if my childhood memory of them was true. For the most part, it was. The thing that got me was all of these people who talked about how kids shouldn't read any of these books because they had the wrong "attitude" about things; in essence, they were not politically correct.  Excuse me?  I think books open up a whole window to the past.  Have views of things changed?  Yes they have, but we cannot whitewash the past or erase it.  Do we tell young adults not to read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or "Huckleberry Finn" because the attitudes expressed in those books do not jibe with today's view of things?  Do we eliminate all the things we don't want our children to know existed?  It's a bit like the story of Sleeping Beauty.  When the curse was laid about her pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, her parents banned all spinning wheels.  Guess what?  She found it anyway.  Wouldn't it have been better if they had simply told her it was dangerous and WHY and talked to her about it?  I suppose it would have been a very boring story if they had.

I doubt children are guided to these books, I found them on my own as a child.  I rarely read what the librarians suggested anyway.  I remember trying to read a book called "the Teddy Bear Habit" after one of the local librarians book-talked it.  It was boring.  Maybe someone else liked it, but it was not for me.  That's what is so great about libraries; there is always something that speaks to you, informs you and nourishes your soul.

I am reading Michael Collins' memoir about his time at NASA.  His views are "politically incorrect" but reflect the mindset of the 1960's  Am I offended, do I think I should stop reading them?  No.  I just look at it and see not only how far we have come but how much further we still have to go.