Tacky the Penguin: Helen Lester
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception: Maggie Stiefvater

A Missed Opportunity?

I'd like to share a little story with you. Yesterday I was on a plane. Two elementary school age boys - maybe 8 and 10 - were in the row across from me, a little bit away from their parents. They were well-behaved, but restless, playing with the tray table, shifting around, etc. One of them was reading the flight safety card, and tried reading the in-flight magazine, but gave them both up pretty quickly. Mostly they ended up just sitting there.

I'm generally a live and let live kind of person, but I have to admit that this bothered me. Because all I could think was "Why didn't their parents bring books for them? Magazines? Something." I was seriously tempted to give them Tennyson by Leslie M. M. Blume, which I had just finished reading. The main reason I didn't was because I intend to review it (it is wonderful), and I had a bunch of passages highlighted. OK, and because it seemed a little presumptuous to give things to other people's children like that. But I was still saddened to see bored kids, when someone could have given them books. What do you all think? Am I over-reacting?

© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

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