Today I’m reading a story from A City of Ghosts to some 4th graders. At the last minute, I think I’ve decided to switch to “Dodge City” while leaving out the part where the kid wishes he could have a gun. My reasoning is this: it’s genuinely spooky and it’s about kids their age.
In unrelated news, my dad read “Beyond, Behind, Below” and was like “So, what happened at the end? The guy just took the kid because he could see him, right?” And I said something about him being the seventh kid from the neighborhood and my dad actually whatevered me. “I figured it out.” He said. This may be a big difference between me and my dad. I view the ending as somewhat ambiguous. I don’t really know what happened. My dad views it as mysterious, and like any mystery, there is a solution.
In other, unrelated news, my beautiful orange bag, which so easily holds the fixings of any baby blanket I’m working on, is already stuffed to the gills with the black, gray, and white afghan and I have at least fifty squares to go. I’m either going to have to get a bigger container or just start piling squares around the house so that it looks like a coaster convention broke out in here.
Anyway, I’m nervous about reading to the kids. I hope they like it.
Tiny Cat Pants 
The fact that it was about kids their age was a big reason mine liked that one. Plus hearing the effects of racial inequality never hurts at that (or any really) age.
I owe you and your kids big time. Because I was FREAKED OUT about reading to fourth graders and the only thing that made me not run screaming away from them is that I knew your kids liked the story. Their amusement made me brave.