I can’t pay my kid to read Anne of Green Gables. The Little Princess, Little Women, Little House on the Prairie? Forget it, out of the question, no way. But why? As I learned when I gave a talk at the local public library, for more than 100 years, dead-ending with my daughter, you could assume that a girl raised in the United States had read or knew about Little Women. In a room of more than 50 women gathered at the library, all of them could name the four main characters in the novel. Canadian girls had the equivalent in Anne of Green Gables. For British girls, the Enid Blyton and E. Nesbit …

I have had that call, when a parent picks up the phone to tell me what shouldn’t have happened at my house.  And my friend Evelyn received that call this week. As you know, if you live in the middle or high school realm, Glee’s new season began recently.  As you may also know, the show includes singing, dancing, and suggestive banter and situations. Evelyn has three kids, and her youngest, Claudia, had a guest over. She and the guests did what eighth grade girls do: they giggled about boys, made brownies and ate the mix before it was baked, and pretended to study science. Fine, thought Evelyn…

In my dream I am chatting in a shop or restaurant. Another customer turns me, saying, “That was the pluperfect subjunctive used flawlessly, in a contrary-to-fact conditional clause, no less. Muy bien.” Yes, my goal is to speak perfect Spanish, and I labor through a grammar book on Sunday evenings. Last night, I learned to say, “I would prefer that you remove your dirty cat before the other people arrive.”   At the same time, I wonder what I could or should – and that’s the subjective right there, mis amigos – be doing to further the language skills of kids I know. I was relieved when Nicholas…

“I watched Nixon resign on television. I was a toddler."  That was my sole and unwelcome contribution to an argument at a neighbor’s house. Amy and her son, Eric, were negotiating how late he could stay up to watch the Oscars. Amy felt that an early bedtime on a Sunday night, after a week without school, was the way to go.  Eric felt that if he didn’t watch the Oscars, he would be out of the swim of seventh grade conversation the next day. The compromise, taping the program to watch the next night, didn’t appeal to Eric. “That doesn’t work with a show like this,” he said. True, as the point …

My children have partied well. They’ve ridden ponies, wrapped snakes around their necks, and greeted a New York Yankee, all in suburban backyards. An American Girl doll party, for dolls and girls, had food and entertainers brought in from the New York American Girl store.  A carnival party meant rides, the moon bounce, and clowns doing the old clown car act, all brought in from Manhattan for the day. That party included cotton candy and snow cone machines staffed by local teens; another party I recall had an ice cream truck pull up. The treats were distributed by a costumed Spiderman and …

Some of us who had planned to sit out the social media revolution were surprised this week. Saturday night saw the sudden arrival of 500 teens and young adults in the Village. The group was unruly, there were assaults, and three arrests were made. The gathering appears to have been publicized via  social media, especially Twitter and Facebook. A quick search revealed messages such as “over 200+ people going to South Orange Ville,” were tweeted on Saturday morning. Other messages included, “mad people going there tonight,” and “people just going, like valentines day weekend. but its gonna get …

Watching the local middle school musical from a seat close to the stage, one I came an hour early to reserve, I clapped loudest for the performers closest to my heart.  When my favorite eighth grade performer danced forward, I cheered loudly, just as I clapped until my hands hurt for a sixth grade first-time hoofer. As I looked around at the audience, I hoped that others watching the play recognized what was clear to me: though neither had a starring role – and why not? -- the spotlight belonged to those two kids.  And that was just a warm up: my own kids’ show isn’t until next month. I was …

I chose not to change out of the jeans that I had worn for four days in a row because I figured no one would brave the cold and icy Monday night for a book discussion at the South Orange Library.  It wouldn’t matter what I wore. Before I left, I tweeted the guest of honor who would be joining the group from her home in California by phone, and I let her know that I’d be covering the event for South Orange Patch.  “I’ll see you there,” tweeted celebrated author Ayelet Waldman (@ayeletw).  Where else but Twitter could I reach out directly to the famous or infamous as the case may be?  It was …