Kids Talk Kid Lit: Readers and Friends

I just returned from an annual camping trip that we take with some of our dearest friends and their families. Now, a lot of my friendships have developed around books and the love of reading. However, the relationships with these amazing friends have been built through years of shared experiences with our kids: chaperoning events, planning school functions, serving on parent/booster boards, being there for each other in times of crisis...Rock-solid friends.

This year's camping trip was wonderful...as it always is. Fireside conversations, game playing and more laughing than you can imagine. And while our initial connection didn't happen because of reading, I couldn't help to notice that our weekend was filled with books.

There were numerous discussions about the books people were currently reading (or had recently read). The reading included a wide variety of topics and genres; the building of the Trans-Continental Railroad, a person's escape from a village that practiced witchcraft, the struggle of caring for people with dementia, the Chronicles of Narnia, Trevor Noah's journey from apartheid South Africa to the desk of the The Daily Show, a fantasy story set in Medieval times, a child learning the truth about her father while coming to understand the horrors of racism during the 1960s. Throughout the weekend these "book talks" would spring up naturally in conversation, often with people joining in on the discussion and asking to learn more about each book.

At one point I looked around the campsite and I couldn't help but smile...