Thursday, September 29, 2005

A republic, madam, if you can keep it

Question 1. What is the meaning of this list (besides serving as public admission that I read a lot of Stephen King and children's books)?

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
20. Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
37. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
62. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
77. Carrie by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
88. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

They're books I managed to read even though they're on the American Library Association' s list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000. (Yes, friends, we're talking that grave threat to our republic in the form of Where's Waldo.)

Question 2. What is the meaning of the title to this post?

It was the answer given by Benjamin Franklin to a Philadelphia lady who inquired what he and the Constitutional Convention had just created.

Question 3. Are these two questions connected?

I guess we're in the process of finding out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You do a once and future teacher's heart good.
Thank you.