Month: March 2024

“Promise me you’ll always remember…”

I love to start the day with coffee and a quick look at the memories that pop up on my phone “on this day (x) years ago.” An old photo or a funny quote from one of my children is a great way to start the day. Today’s memory was the image above that I saved several years ago. I love this quote. It is lines like this that make me truly love children’s books.

Children like to reread stories themselves or have someone read the same story to them many, many times. Parents often joke they can recite certain books from memory. Words like these make those 10,000 rereads so very important. As a young child falls asleep listening to the story being read aloud, I hope these words seep deep into their mind. I hope they realize A.A. Milne’s message wasn’t simply dialogue between two characters in a book, but rather he was speaking to his young readers.

Readers often identify the characters in books, even when those characters are animals (you may recall the many times I’ve discussed “The One and Only Ivan”). Reading (or hearing) those lines in a book in addition to hopefully being internalized, shows young readers true compassion between friends. While the image shows Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, it was actually said by Christopher Robbins to Winnie the Pooh (the quote appears in “The House at Pooh Corner”). The quote in its entirety is even better “Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver thank you believe, and stronger thank you seem, and smarter than you think.” The words I love most “promise me you’ll always remember.”

I hope every young reader who hears Winnie the Pooh read aloud or reads the book on their own, always remembers those words.

When your secrets go viral…

How do you keep things private in a digital age? When things can easily be shared online? When hackers can access devices and cloud storage, is anything ever really safe?

In “In Case You Missed It” by Sarah Darer Littman we see what happens when your safe protected cloud storage is hacked and shared online. Sammy, a high school junior is busy with the APs and getting her driver’s license. She keeps a personal diary on her computer so her little brother can’t find it and read it.

Sammy’s dad is the CEO of a major bank. He is under enormous stress because there are protesters outside the bank protesting bank actions. Sammy is aware of his stress, but she’s a teenager busy with her own school stress. While it might seem like there is no overlap, their whole world is turned upside down when hackers hack into bank documents then turn their attack on her father, personally. They hack into the family’s cloud storage and start sharing everything they find online…including Sammy’s personal diary.

Every thought, every frustration, the time she lied to her parents…all out there for her classmates and parents to read. Things at the bank are worse than ever and her dad stays at work for days on end because he is dealing with the issues there. Her entire school has read her diary, her friends are furious and refuse to speak to her. The ultimate irony in Sammy’s mind is that her mom tells her not to read any of their emails or texts shared online but Sammy’s mom reads her diary. On top of losing her friends, Sammy is caught lying to her parents through her diary and is now grounded. While Sammy’s secrets are on the internet being read, so are her parents’ secrets and Sammy learns the biggest secret they’ve been keeping from her. Definitely check out this book to see what happens when all those private thoughts and email exchanges are now available for the whole world to read.

This YA book is well written and readers of all age can identify with the question – how safe is anything online? The story flows well, is captivating and took turns I didn’t expect (which I really enjoy in a book). Friendships end, family dynamics change, Sammy learns a lot about herself, her real friends, and if you have to choose who is going to snoop through your diary….she’d rather it was just her little brother. I highly recommend this book.