Six Degrees of Separation – from Western Lane to Music in Western Civilization

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place, add six books, and see where we end up. This month’s starting point is Western Lane by Chetna Maroo, a coming-of-age story about a girl whose only escape is squash after losing her mother. It is too new to have reached my library but got a great New York Times review and is a finalist for the Booker Prize.

Football in Kidlit

Superbowl Sunday seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the children's books I enjoyed with football as a theme. Although I did not become a football fan until college, when I became a football manager of the Harvard team, I always enjoyed reading about it (in the same way I enjoyed nature so long as I could do it from a comfortable armchair inside the house).

All discussion of football in juvenile fiction must begin with Family Grandstand by Carol Ryrie Brink, which I found in my elementary school library. Set in a midwestern college town, the story delightfully depicts the Ridgeway family's absorption with the fortunes of the team and its star quarterback, Tommy Tokarynski. One of my favorite parts was how George, the only son, tries to make money parking cars in the family driveway during football games as they live just a few blocks from campus. I often thought that my family's involvement with college hockey was a lot like the Ridgeways' fun with football in this book.