more than peaches

"Mom, do you want to know what I'm interesting in?"

This came after my long-winded attempt at explaining what non-fiction is to Greta. She clearly got it when I started with it as books that are not about characters, but about real things. But, I had insisted in lising every non-fiction topic that I could. Well, that is, non-fiction topics that I deemed interesting and appropriate to a three-year-old, mainly flora and fauna. The AH Memorial Library spawned this conversation with its summer reading program's assignment to read a children's book of non-fiction.

"We could read a book about ladybugs, or flowers, or space, or . . ."

I was interrupted. "Mom, do you want to know what I'm interesting in?" (Of course, she meant "interested," but I found it too charming to correct.)

"What are you interesting in, Greta?"

"I really, really want to know, 'What is a stranger anyway?' And I need to know about California."

Suppressing a laugh, "Yes. Strangers are important to know about. And so is California. What do you already know about California?"

"It has peaches."

"Peaches? What else?"

"That's all. That's why I need to know more."

This, of course, was followed by about fifty other things she'd like to know about, but the rest of them were essentially a laundry list of things that she could see as we parked in the basement of the library and took the elevator up (What are pipes? How do you build pipes? How do you build a house? How do you drive a car?)

Oh, and we can applaud our local library for not only having a book about strangers written for a young audience, but also a DISPLAY about travel, including a child's book about California. Wahoo!