Peanuts by Charles Schulz for July 08, 2021

good for you, Miss Reichardt

That’s why it’s called a summer reading program, not a summer understanding program.

Pay attention more in school Peppermint Patty and you’ll be able to enjoy those books far more! ;P

It’s time for “The Very Hungry Caterpiller” and a then to start a new streak.

She can’t be talking about Watership Down, The Red Pony, and A Separate Peace.I read all of those during my freshman year of high school 45 years ago, and understood them perfectly.

You have to advance beyond “Dick & Jane” stories Peppermint Patty.

(On a side note: Do they still have “Dick & Jane” readers in school?)

Only nine? Rookie…

Read something about baseball.

I had a University final year American literature course like that, I don’t remember all the books on the course anymore but they included.. “White Noise” ,“Trout Fishing in America”, something by William S. Burroughs. Most of the novels were stream of consciousness narratives written by people high on assorted drugs and not one of which I would consider fit to publish, let alone worthy of being considered literature. I lost my love of reading thanks to that course.

She’s a fast reader!

As a grade through high school student I hated reading and subjects like history.

That started to change in college. (I was tested when I entered college and found to read at the 90th percentile in speed and 95 percentile in comprehension in spite of my aversion to reading).

Now I read everything including the labels on cereal boxes and soup cans (you don’t want to really know what’s in that stuff) and I can’t get enough of history or reading historically accurate novels.

I think my earlier aversions came from not liking what I was told to read and not having enough life experience to understand it.

My favorite summer reading program was unofficial. My English teacher loved romance novels (the Harlequin types), and I told her I thought they were trash. She challenged me to read a few over the summer, then in the fall, go back to her & tell her what I thought. Thankfully, my mom had picked up a small box of them (she had a side thing with consignment shops) and let me have it ‘til I was done. I read the first one: boy meets girl, they hate each other, end up in a situation, fall in love. The situation was interesting and the characters were cute. I read the second one…different specifics, but generally the same exact thing. A third…a fourth…I don’t remember how many, but they were all essentially the same thing. Oh, and there were different “brands”. I went back in the fall, gave the teacher my list of ones that I read (to prove it), and said, “They’re STILL trash.”

What was Patti reading — linear algebra?

Maybe you should try actually reading them, sir. That way, you’ll understand them better.

At least she’s reading… I learned, in a high school “American Novel” class in the 70’s, a lesson about how to get good grades. First book was “Lord of the Flies”. Teacher took one position on what it meant, I took another. Did the reading, made concise points backed up by references to the reading and summarized my position. Got a C-. Next book was “A Catcher in the Rye”. I parroted the teachers opinion, with some rewording and different references and points. Got an A. Did the same for the rest of the books, all “A’s”. Sometimes getting good grades isn’t about knowing the material, it’s about knowing the teacher.

At least she can read.

The way things are going, they should just put Peppermint Patty into a summer reading program, then she might know a thing or two.

So she really doesn’t know where Waldo is!

My record is 726…

She sounds ready for university.

Ummmm…those are in Latin…

I bought the complete works of Jane Austen last week (minus Lady Susan and Sanditon) and am currently about halfway through Emma. Planning to read them all this year! (I’d already bought and finished Pride and Prejudice earlier this year.)

Anyone remember the “Little Golden Books”? They were mostly classics, like The Little Engine Who Could", "The Boy Who Cried Wolf, “Hansel & Gretel”, etc.. My parents’ friends, illustrated them. We had quite a collection.

The summer reading in the lush green environs need not be meaningful.

Don’t worry, it’s in there somewhere….

What did you do, read the synopsis on the back of each book? Or did you read the first and last pages of each book? That was my sister, read the first and last pages and claimed to read the whole book. She tried pulling that once with a book I liked and had read several times. Told me she’d read the book which I thought at first was great. Until I asked her what she thought of a certain event in the story. She asked me what book that was from and when I told her it was from the book she’d just claimed to read she proceeded to claim that wasn’t in the book. I opened her copy and turned to the section I knew it was in and proceeded to show her. Her reaction, “Oh, I didn’t read that part.” Had it been my other sister I’d have been stunned by that as she was a voracious (?spelling) reader and if you questioned her about something in a book she’d know about it. But this particular sister it wasn’t so shocking she’d pull that.

Recently in world history, 16 2/3 was considered a new record speed before 33 1/3 showed up after the 78’s.

Kind of how I felt when I tried reading Shakespeare during fifth grade out of curiosity. I understood most of the words and sentences, but it was generally over my head.

No nine books for me…“Hamlet” was enough for a couple years before I tried again.

Maybe Peppermint Patty has a learning disability.