BOOKS AND BEER DAY

I am all excited.  Today is Read a Child a Book You Like Day. This is a fabulous holiday.  I could celebrate this holiday every single day of the year. 

I still have some of my picture books from being a kid, and I also re-bought several of them when I worked at the book store: The Enormous Turnip, The Lonely Doll, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, Harry the Dirty Dog, Blueberries for Sal, and, one of my all-time favorites, Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine. There are many more I still need to replace, including Lyle Lyle Crocodile and Andrew Henry's Meadow.

Being a middle school teacher, I am also fond of ordering books I remember (along with new ones), such as Harriet the Spy  and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  Ironically, I skipped over many of the young adult recommendations and went right to adult fiction (starting with horror, but it's no surprise since I was a huge Poe fan) only to have to revisit the novels I avoided in order to teach them to my students: The Cay, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and The Pearl (by the way -- Kino kills Coyotito; count the shots).

Needless to say, this day is very, very exciting.  There's nothing like reading a child a book that you enjoyed yourself when you were young.  However, this holiday is not the only one celebrated today.  No, siree. Today is also National Strawberry Cream Pie Day, National Good Neighbor Day, World Rabies Day, World Maritime Day, Fish Tank Floorshow Night, and International Right to Know Day, which is crazy-funny since it is also National Ask a Stupid Question Day.

Today is also National Drink Beer Day. 

Not that reading your favorite book to children isn't enough, because it is.  It's just a little twisted that the day you're supposed to entertain children is also a day to imbibe in beer.  Hence, my friends, why I am all excited!