You know what?

It occurred to me last night on the way to church that it was Wednesday, which is why I was in the van with everyone going to church. And if it was Wednesday, then that meant tomorrow, or today rather, is Thursday.

And what do we do here on Thursdays?

I mean beside rolling toe lint into tiny balls and flicking them at passing co-workers.

And not that thing we do with the big magnets and olive oil.

No, not rearranging our pencils by size.

And no, not looking at pictures of naked mole rats on the Internet.

IT'S TIME FOR THE THURSDAY THREE, YOU BIG SILLY! The Axis of Weevil Thursday Three! Remember?! Where we ask three questions, and it's kinda like the Friday Five, except on Thursday, and there's only three questions, and it's a whole lot more fun? That?

Well, that's what it is, and this is it.

"SO, how does this thing work?" you might ask, if you are new or haven't been paying attention over the past weeks.

Well, I get some questions, and you either put a link in the comments to your blog or you just put your answers in the comment section (remembering that there is a thousand character limit in Haloscan) and we all enjoy reading what each other has written. Sometimes the questions relate directly to our beloved state of Alabama, or occasionally to our beloved South, and then sometimes, like the ones we have today, they are more general in nature. And I don't come up with all of these. Sometimes, due to work or other things interfering with the voices in my head, I make use of the mighty intellectual talents of the readership. A few weeks ago, I solicited for some questions from the readership to be placed inside the secret compartment in my briefcase alongside my lucky hat, to be pulled out and used as needed to provide me, and you, with thrilling blog content and the entertainment value of three entire circuses.

This week's questions come to us via the vivacious and thoroughly pregnant Jordana Adams, who wants to know:

1. Who are your three favorite children's authors?

2. What are your three favorite children's books?

3. What children's books would you rather never ever see again?

Excellent questions! Even if you can't read. In any event, all of you go think up some answers and get to posting.

As for my answers--

1) Let's see, I think probably Sun-Tzu, Goethe, and Kant. (Not really.) As a parent and having read a truckload of books to the kids over the past few years, some of the contemporary authors I really like include Marc Brown who writes AND illustrates the "Arthur the Aardvark" series. The thing I like best is that parents (and adults in general) are never demeaned in their positions of authority, even when they are shown to be wrong about something. And the stories are well written and not overly cloying and twee. Next would be Eric Carle, another writer/drawer. His books are more for little kids, but they never fail to entertain and provoke conversation. Finally, having three girls, they all have enjoyed the variety of authors of the "American Girl" books. They like the historical parts, and the stories, regardless of author (and I know this really shouldn't count as ONE author, but, hey), always do a good job of promoting hard work and morality.

2) My own favorite children's books have to start with Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. I found my copy last year and got to read it to Jonathan's class, an event chronicalled here on Possumblog somewhere. (As an aside, the vaunted Blogger Navbar thing that supposedly allows you to search a blog for words doesn't work at all. It took me ten minutes of manual searching through the archives using the Internet Explorer Find function to find this entry, even though the word "mulligan" is found SEVERAL times throughout Possumblog. Thanks for nothing, Blogger.) Another would be The Saggy Baggy Elephant. I made my mother read that to me until it was nearly in tatters. Still have it, too, though. Third, I always loved getting "The Weekly Reader" in school.

3) Hmm--to do without encompasses SO much--the Captain Underpants stuff could leave and not be missed, and Judy Moody, and anything to do with Barbie. Or Yu-Gi-Oh! Or any of the fresh crop of Japanese backward-reading manga novels so popular among teen girls.

Anyway, there you go, and my apologies for this being posted so late today, but I really did forget all about it.
posted by Terry at 9:06:00 AM