Growing up in Texas, summertime was about staying cool. Whether lounging in the shade of a tree or curled in an inconspicuous corner by the window, most of my free time at home was spent with a book. One particularly steamy July, my step-sister and I read our way through the complete series of first edition Frank L. Baum Oz books in my family's library.

Inspired by our literary adventures, we created elaborate fantasy worlds to correspond with whatever we were reading. We lived with one toe in reality, while the rest of us remained happily immersed in cooler, more colorful lands, where fantastical plots revolved around our fancy.

I have tried to pass the legacy of pleasure-reading on to my children, who are inundated with easy entertainment fixes at every turn. I don't want their brains to be lulled into passivity by a constantly flickering TV screen, and I hope to teach them to prefer the interaction of mind and story to that of thumb-numbing hand-held games.

Getting Started with Classics

While federal mandates require that elementary schools implement programs emphasizing phonics, comprehension and fluency, teachers in many schools are being pressured to "teach to the test," often at the expense of a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of literature as an art form. In response, parents who want to make sure their children are exposed to fine children's literature are often turning to reading groups at local bookstores and community libraries.

"A lot of classics–books like Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and even the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, are books that may not be taught necessarily in the classroom anymore, but they are still given out by school librarians and public librarians," says Jane Marino, president-elect of the Association for Library Service to Children (http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alsc.htm) and director of the Bronxville Library, in Bronxville, New York.

"Books like the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary can still be found in classroom libraries, and the really good teachers will take the time to introduce some of these books in the classroom setting and will read aloud to their students."