Wittingshire: Our Children's Favorite Books

Amanda Witt has started a list of the books her children read over and over. It's a long and varied list.

As for her note on the Hank the Cowdog series...

Erickson, Hank the Cowdog series. These are very clever, with lots of fun word play and tangled idioms--sometimes when we read these aloud Jonathan and I are choking with laughter, and the kids have no clue why.

... I would add that it's been my experience in our bookstore that kids might enjoy these books, sometimes very much, but it's generally the parents who insist they must have every one in the series ;-). So Amanda and Jonathan are in good company, believe me. The audiobook versions have also been popular around here. For whatever reason, the Hank the Cowdog books aren't especially my cup of tea -- but there's no getting around the fact that people who like them tend to have Great Fun with them.

P.S. My husband does the book ordering these days, so I just went and asked him whether we were still getting much call for Hank the Cowdog books. His reply was essentially, "Oh, yes! Both locals and tourists." He added that one local family recently stocked up on the audiobooks for a several week long trip to Louisiana and back. I bet that was some wild trip :-).

P.P.S. Yes, dear regular reader, you read that right. My husband, who gave us all such a scare not that long ago, is well enough he's overseeing book orders again, not to mention other day-to-day business matters. We have to dodge yards and yards of tubing from his oxygen concentrator, but that's nothing. He's still not up to where he'd like to be but, on the other hand, compared to what most of the medical professionals told us to expect he's doing rather well, thanks. (Knock wood.)

P.P.P.S. Amanda's kids are between seven and eleven years old. If you have any book recommendations for that age range, drop a note in comments here, please.