When's the last time you read middle grade fiction? You know the books--Beverly Cleary, The Boxcar Children, The Magic School Bus, Junie B. Jones, etc.

I'll be honest. It's been a while. And I was looking forward to reading some of them again with my daughter as she reached the age for those stories.

As you can see, she's taken matters into her own hands. This was how she posed one night when her daddy told her it was time for bed. We're raising a reader. She's in first grade, but has worked her way up to a third grade reading level over the summer. And she's loving all these stories.

She rushed in the other day, exclaiming over something that had happened in the Ramona book she'd been reading. "Did you know that happened, Mommy?" I used to!