Cure for the Summertime Blues (part 4)

For adults, it's beach leisure reading -- I'm currently greatly enjoying the latest Stephanie Plum novel, Finger Lickin' Fifteen. For kids, it's more essential. Here's a New York Times piece that's no news to librarians, but it's nice to hear other people singing our song.

A brief excerpt:

OP-ED COLUMNIST: The Best Kids’ Books Ever
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Pry your kids away from the keyboard and the television, and give them a book. For ideas, here’s a summer reading list....

“In educating myself this spring about education, I was aghast to learn that American children drop in I.Q. each summer vacation — because they aren’t in school or exercising their brains.

This is less true of middle-class students whose parents drag them off to summer classes or make them read books. But poor kids fall two months behind in reading level each summer break, and that accounts for much of the difference in learning trajectory between rich and poor students.

A mountain of research points to a central lesson: Pry your kids away from the keyboard and the television this summer, and get them reading.”

His list is worth checking out. What's on your list of best kids' books ever?