Try to Remember...

I wasn't a reader as a kid. Music was more my thing. Now I was fairly good in English class but I can pretty much name all the books I remember reading on my own: Encyclopedia Brown, Children of Morrow and Sweet Valley High. Then I found Withering Heights, Piers Anthony & Orson Scott Card. That was it. Grade 11 and I lost any chance of ever experiencing the classic kids' books as a kid. No Munsch, Judy Blume, blah, blah, blah...

Fast forward...most of you know I work for publisher of children's books. Sometimes my lack of childhood reading memories shows but I've been in the business long enough to have discovered some new to me favourites (Kit Pearson!)

Recently, a friend asked me for some kid friendly versions of Shakespeare. That got us talking a bit about introducing our classics to this new generation of readers. Then, I read this article, Kids' Books are alright, in the NYTimes. It referred to a book on this very topic - Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading. I love the covers!!

So I am thinking. What are your classics?