Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for October 01, 2012

LOL! I can’t wait to try that on my boss at work!

Brings back memories!

Nice going, Holly, now you’re gonna be in trouble.

Hey, everyone’s thinkin’ it; Holly’s just saying it out loud.

60 pages? they don’t even assign that much homework in college anymore (even though they should)! The fiction books assigned in middle school don’t even total 60 pages (even though they should)!

The problem with assigned reading is that I always got caught up in the story and finished the book. My husband did the same. It must be genetic because our sons did it too.

60 pages of Shakespeare? No way!! Maybe 20 pages. But even that is hard work. We’re talking Shakespeare, not Tolstoy!

Ooohhh that has got to hurt!

Ask & you shan’t receive.

@mrssaskfan, my daughters were penalized in middle school for reading ahead. It wasn’t easy to remember where they were supposed to be in the story, but once we caught on, we helped them figure out how to fake it. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down (new Chinese saying).

We did have a couple Shakespeare units in middle school and high school, but it’s not Dostoevsky, most of Shakespeare’s stories and plays are easy to get through. You guys prefer his comedies or tragedies?

@harebellI’m dating myself so here goes. When I was a kid, there were no preschools and Sesame Street hadn’t been invented yet. I learned the basics in kindergarten. When I got to first grade and learned to read, I got ‘talked’ at for reading ahead during a small reading group session. You would think it would be appreciated that a kid got so interested in the story they would read ahead. I became a voracious reader and I was at the library a lot when I was old enough, bring home the maximum number of books and finish them before they were due back. These days, you’re lucky to see kids being able to read at all and even spell words correctly.

When I was in eighth grade, I tried to check out a book of O. Henry’s short stories. The librarian, who looked about eighty, wouldn’t let me check it out because she thought it was too advanced for me. Moi! Takes all kinds, I guess.

We did Sonlight curriculum for a long time, lot’s of historical fiction. I generally finished a book the same day it was assigned, then managed to finish a few more before my mom hid them all. Love that curriculum.

At least you all got to go to library, My mom never would take us and wanted nothing to do with reading still does not. I had boring summers. Oh I made up on the books, now there is nooks and cost a fortune for those books for nooks.

Before TV & phones, I lived across the street from the library. My Mom was sick so, I was there always. Picked at random, got a broad background. Moved when i was 12. Hated that. Now, I have my own library and an eight inch dictionary!!!

I love your strip every day!