I cannot let today go by without acknowledging that I registered on eBay 25 years ago today. I registered in order to bid on a tweed copy of Larkspur Lane that had a rather chipped dust jacket. I lost the auction since I bid under $10. In those days, I considered that a bit high, since I was used to cheap books in local stores.
I had been lurking on eBay since around January 1997. I didn't jump into online activity instantly. I checked eBay out for around two months before I finally started bidding.
I have written posts about my eBay anniversary several times, since that day was an important day in my life. I would not have what I have if not for eBay. I don't know exactly how many of the books in my collection were purchased on eBay, but it has to be at least 90% of them.
Here are links to some of my past posts which share interesting information about the early days of eBay.
Twelve Years Ago Today
The above post goes into some detail as to how I became a series book collector. It also has a scan of the first listing I won on eBay.
Here's another post.
20 Years Ago Today
I also found the post where I go into greater detail about how I became a series book collector.
Where It All Began
Finally, here's a post about the most exciting find I ever made in an antique shop.
Remembering My Best Find
Thursday, March 17, 2022
25 Years Ago Today
The Secret of Riverside Farm by Jean Hager
Living on a farm is a new experience for Alison and her younger brother John. They find the old farmhouse looking like a "milk carton"—tall, narrow, old, and dejected. Alison feels a bit dejected herself and hopes the summer away from her friends will not be as drab as she expects.
However, Alison's natural curiosity and love of mystery are aroused when she discovers a letter hidden in a window seat in her room. The letter, yellowed with age, hints that something valuable is hidden on the farm.
With the help of her brother and a neighbor boy, Alison begins a methodical investigation. But clues turn up that are far more interesting than anticipated, leading Alison and her helpers into dangerous situations.
I never cared about the story. This book is missing that extra something that makes Jean Hager's The Whispering House special. This book is just okay and nothing more.
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The 2022 Friends of the Library Book Sale
I wrote this about the library sale in my previous post.
The library sale was odd this year. The sale was extremely short on volunteers. Many volunteers had dropped because of covid fears, and many more had dropped because of the ice. They did not have anywhere near enough volunteers.
I was third in line, which was the closest I had ever been to being first in line. The lack of volunteers resulted in the belt barriers not being placed correctly. Some people moved them, and later, the person in charge of the entire sale got everything set right for our section.
The lack of volunteers meant that the sale was quite short on cashiers. We were told that we would be on the honor system. We were given tally slips and told to figure out our own totals. Many books were still in boxes in the outer lobby since not enough volunteers had shown up that week.
I will publish a separate post showing the books that I purchased at the sale. I could tell that the library had received far fewer donations than usual. I had suspected that would be the case. Remember that I believed that the books were probably going to local stores.
The library sale always overwhelmingly consists of library discards. After all, it is a library sale. I don't know what percent of the books are usually library discards, but let's say 75% of them are. At this year's sale, I would say that 90% of the books were library discards. The sale had about as many books as usual, but the books were two years' worth of library discards.
This meant that the books I most wanted to see at the sale simply were not there. The old series books were almost completely absent. They were never donated and had probably been sold to local stores.
Here are the books I purchased at the sale. You must click on each photo in order to see it clearly.
The last sale was two years ago, and I purchased a large number of the Nancy Drew Twin Thriller editions at that sale as well. Such an odd coincidence.
Purchasing Hardy Boys #58 in the flashlight edition was a mistake. I'm sure that I was thinking of Nancy Drew #58 when I grabbed it. I have to go quickly, so I always purchase some books that I should not have.
The Silent Message was signed by the author. I have started reading it, and it's pretty good so far. I was happy to see High Country Adventure by Marian Rumsey, since I recently read her Carolina Hurricane. Upon trying to read it, I don't find it that interesting.
I purchased both of the miniature Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books that were available a number of years ago.
I purchased quite a few vintage teen books.
The 2010 Book Sale
More of the 2010 Books
The 2011 Book Sale
The 2020 Book Sale
The Whispering House by Jean Hager
The house, built in the mid-nineteenth century, seems to whisper that it has a secret. But the whispers of classmates and many adults in Union City, that the children's great-great grandfather was a traitor, were even more disturbing to Anne. Intent on finding out the truth about the rumors, Anne finds herself in an awkward situation: she must produce evidence to prove that her ancestor was not a traitor or expose the family to even more embarrassment.
This book was published in 1970 by Steck-Vaughn. Jean Hager is a prolific author, but she has only written two books for children. The second book is The Secret of Riverside Farm, also published in 1970 by Steck-Vaughn. Both books are quite scarce and difficult to find priced fairly and in collectible condition. That is, a few collectible copies can be found as I write this, but that will likely change upon publication of this post. Altogether, around 10 copies of Riverside Farm and around 15 to 20 copies of Whispering House are available online. Some copies are quite overpriced. At decent prices, the books are in short supply.
Two years ago, I found The Whispering House at a booksale. In that post, I wrote:
The Whispering House caught my eye, and I opened it just to see if it might be interesting enough to purchase. This was after I had already gone over the books more than once and was browsing more leisurely. As soon as I opened the book, I saw that it was signed by the author. I still don't know if the book is good, but I wasn't going to leave a signed book behind. And yes, as you can clearly see, the book was priced at $2.00.
Recently I decided to select random books off of my shelves and then try to read them. I have been very unmotivated to read and review books. I was determined to write a review for any book I tried, even if I didn't like it. And so I selected this book.
As I began reading the first few pages, the story was adequate, and I considered it to be overall good. I quickly decided that the book was very good. By halfway through the book, I was completely captivated and very happy to be reading such a great story.
The book combines a mystery with a coming-of-age story. The lesson is that appearances are deceiving and that we should not judge people by the limited information we have.
I really enjoyed wondering how and when Anne would figure out what she needed to know about her great-great grandfather. Anne has real worries, and the solution to the mystery is important. I also enjoyed the development of Anne's relationship with her Uncle Julian.
This is exactly the kind of book I like. It is easy to read, engaging, and suspenseful. I was never bored. This is an excellent book.
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Gatekeeping of Unkind Statements in the Facebook Groups
Gatekeeping of Opinions in the Facebook Groups
This is when people get offended over someone's opinion and ask that it be removed from the group. Typically, nothing is wrong with the supposedly offensive opinion. It is an opinion, and everyone is entitled to have their own opinion.
That kind of gatekeeping is wrong. However, I do my own share of gatekeeping, and it involves preventing people from being hurt by unkind statements. The unkind statements fall into two categories.
The first type consists of mean comments aimed at specific collectors. These people will mention a specific person, website, or eBay listing, and then proceed to make nasty statements. I have deleted several of those over the years. I will protect collectors from having their feelings hurt by mean collectors. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to protect myself from that. I end up seeing the attacks made on me, but I do try to spare other people from experiencing that hurt.
The second type of unkind statement is when members aim insults at teenagers and Millennials. What's weird is that most of these people think that Millennials and teenagers are the same generation. They aren't. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996. The very oldest current teenagers were born during 2002. At least get the generations right if you're going to throw out insults. Otherwise, your insults make no sense.
Whenever I see a generational insult, I remove it. We need the younger collectors. If we chase them away, then our hobby and all interest in it will soon cease to exist.
This is a breakdown of the membership of the Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books group by age. The percentages do not add to 100, which was caused by Facebook's rounding of the numbers. That drives me crazy (I teach math), but I don't have the information to fix it.
28% - age 65+
26% - ages 55-64
I am in the middle of the 45-54 age range. Let's say that half of the people in my range are older and that half are younger. This means that 64% of the group's members are older than me. I have always known that I was one of the younger collectors. When I first got online in the 1990s, probably 90-95% of collectors were older than me. The percentage has dropped, but even now that I am much older, most collectors are still older than me.
I remember those early days online. Just about nobody liked the revised text books. I read those growing up, so I liked them fine. I agree that the original text Nancy Drew books are usually better, but it was distressing that just about everyone acted like my beloved revised text Nancys were awful.
Even now, since most collectors are older than me, the majority opinion continues to be that the original text books are the only good ones. Opinion has softened somewhat, since those people, while still the majority, are not the extreme majority.
It's not a problem that people like the original text books better. It's how they say it. Some of these people act obnoxious, saying that all Nancy Drew books from after an arbitrary date are "trash." Not as much of that happens now as it once did, but that viewpoint is still quite prevalent.
Negative statements about the modern Nancy Drew books can also drive away the younger collectors. I'm not that young, but I avidly collect all of the softcover Nancy Drew books. I have complete sets of Nancy Drew #57-175, Files, Girl Detective, and Diaries (these in the pricier hardcover edition). Consider my age and that I am open to collecting these books. Some collectors older than me make terrible, judgmental statements about all of the softcover Nancy Drew books. If I were very young, I'd flee. Why would I want to stay in a group with people who hate what I like?
Gen X and Millennials are the end of the line for series book collectors. We have a number of Millennial collectors and a very few Gen Z collectors, but our fandom is a dying breed. Insulting Millennials is foolish. Insulting Gen Z is even worse since we can't afford to alienate the very few young people who will join the hobby. Let's not chase them off.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Drina Ballet Series Update
On March 1, I was asked about my reading of the Drina Ballet books. I replied, "I have read the first three and have enjoyed them. I am stuck at the beginning of the fourth book only because I got distracted."
I was distracted by passive media. My attention span has been poor for the last two years, and I find it very hard to follow through with reading multiple books in a set. I am currently horrible at it, and I cannot get myself under control. My low reading output has been caused by the stress of the pandemic, the debacle of the last two school years, and other events.
On March 6, I gave an update on my reading via my Facebook page.
I made progress today. I finally read through Drina #5 Drina Dances in Italy and am now reading #6 Drina Dances Again. I managed to finish my reviews of the first four Drina books. The images are in place, and the posts are completely written. They just need to be proofread.
I set a rule for myself where I am requiring myself to write reviews of any books that I read. I didn't do well with that last year.
Furthermore, when my reading paused again, I set another rule where I must read all of the Drina books before I allow myself to read anything else. Roadblock!
Since I could not allow myself to break the two rules, I had to push past the roadblock. So here I am. The Drina posts will not be published until I am close to finishing reading through the set.
I am not listing books on eBay or Etsy. I am not watching passive media. I have dropped everything. It's Drina or bust. I'm reading the Drina books as quickly as I can one after another. I am now reading #8 Drina Dances in Madeira.
Setting a rule for myself that I cannot allow myself to break works quite well. This is getting done.
I have noticed an uptick of Drina books selling on eBay ever since I first mentioned this series. Apparently at least one or two people decided to work on a set. I thought I'd give some more information for anyone else who is wondering whether they might like these books. They aren't easy to acquire and can be pricey. Buying these books requires a bit of an investment, at least to get any titles beyond the first few.
In my introductory post, I shared scans of the first 15 pages of text from the first book so that you can get an idea of whether you would like the book.
The Drina Ballet Series
A few people have asked me how well I'm enjoying the books, so here are my ratings.
#5 Drina Dances Again is more interesting than the previous book, but it is not quite as good as the other books I have read.
#1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are just excellent books. I love all of them.
This is a series that must be read in order. Oh, I suppose you could read them out of order, but that would take away most of the impact. Each book begins immediately after the close of the previous book and continues with the overarching story.
I have known where the story is going the entire time that I've been reading the books. (Even though I do know some important plot details for the final books, please don't mention anything to me since you could end up telling me more than what I already know.)
Even if I hadn't known all along what the overarching story is, I would have guessed. It's not hard to figure out. Knowing where this is going doesn't take away from my pleasure. I am enjoying seeing how this develops.
Drina starts the series as a young child. She is around nine or ten years old during the first book. In #5 Drina Dances in New York, Drina is 14 1/2 and falls in love. With #5, the books transition more towards young adult books even though the tone is the same.
A month ago, I purchased #11 Drina Ballerina so that I could read the conclusion to the series. I originally wasn't going to purchase it since it has some negative reviews. I changed my mind later. The book still hasn't arrived. It's coming from England, so it hopefully will arrive soon. I am getting concerned. The main problem is that if the book arrives after I finish #10 and start something else, then I might never read it. I know how I am. Once I move past a set, I won't ever get back to it. If the book is going to arrive, I hope it does so at the start of next week.
With my current determination and reading speed, I should finish the set by around Monday. That's why #11 needs to show up double-quick.
Friday, March 11, 2022
Omicron, Snow, Snark, Sleet, and the Book Sale
January and February 2022 pretty much had it all, and most of it was bad. March isn't any better, and in some ways, it's even worse. Could we get out of this alternate timeline and go back to a more normal world? Maybe someday...
As the year began, the Omicron wave was building into its peak. I continued to double-mask at school, and I got lessons ready two weeks in advance in case I fell ill. I didn't get sick, but I didn't know that I wouldn't. It was so hard to keep everything ready for two weeks in advance. I am still trying to stay ahead by at least one week while aiming for two.
School was closed on January 14 because of the surge in cases. That was the first snow day we used, and we had just two snow days built into the calendar.
School was closed on February 2, 3, and 4 due to a winter storm which resulted in around five inches of snow. Those days closed were also snow days, so we had used two more days than we had been allotted. We will use an alternate plan to make up the extra days, so we will soon begin to add time to each school day.
The three-day closure impacted a test, which messed that up quite well. I wasn't otherwise concerned about the closure and shifting everything around, but having it impact a test was a problem. I wasn't concerned about the upcoming book sale, although I should have been. Meanwhile...
On February 13, I received a snarky message from a member of a group that I manage on Facebook. This person was unhappy that a post had been declined. They made a point to look at all of my old posts in the group, as they had done before, to find something to use against me. They quoted an old post of mine back at me and added some snarky comments and emojis to get their message across.
This message was not the first one of its type that had been sent to me. I handed the situation to the other moderators and had them deal with it. Even so, I took quite a hit and had a bit of an autoimmune flare the week of February 13.
Friday, February 25 was the scheduled date for the beginning of the 2022 Friends of the Library Book Sale in Oklahoma City. The sale was not held in 2021 because of the pandemic. 2021 was the only year that the sale was skipped since its inception.
The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale
Several times in the last two years, I have mentioned my belief that the books that would have been donated to the library book sale were instead going to local bookstores.
Where Are the Books?
In the above post, I showed off some vintage teen books that I purchased in a local store, books that would have been at the 2021 library book sale if they had been taking donations and if they had held that sale.
I have found far more vintage teen books in local stores during the last year than I normally do, and I'm certain that many of them would have found their way to the library book sale during normal times.
After we got past the winter storm that impacted school on February 2, 3, and 4, everything began to settle back down. As I mentioned, I wasn't worried about the library book sale. Even if there were a snow or ice event, it wouldn't be a big deal at the end of February. No worries.
During the week of February 13, chatter began about a possible winter storm the week of February 20. Oh, surely not. But if so, it wouldn't be a problem, not near the end of February. By February 20, the local media were hyping it up to get higher ratings. The forecast amounts were low enough that I didn't think that the impact would be that great.
I was still somewhat concerned, however. By Tuesday, February 22, I knew we were going to get some sleet, but I thought that it wouldn't impact roads past Thursday, February 24. We were supposed to get a trace to perhaps one-half inch of sleet. Temperatures were expected to begin warming up.
I was more concerned about school, since I had another test scheduled. I decided that it would be okay if we missed school on Wednesday and were open again on Thursday. I came up with a doable plan if school were closed on Wednesday and Thursday. School shouldn't be closed for more than two days, since we weren't supposed to get much and temperatures would begin warming.
We ended up getting a lot more sleet than was forecast, and it was colder than forecast. The central part of the Oklahoma City metro ended up with 1 1/2 to 2 inches of sleet which then compacted into a thick sheet of ice covering all surfaces. It simply would not melt due to very cold temperatures. Since we had already used up our snow days, the district pivoted to remote learning for February 23, 24, and 25, which of course screwed up the scheduled test and destroyed all my plans.
I was so stressed that week. I was worried about the test that ended up being postponed into the following week. I knew that students weren't going to do well because of the delay. I was concerned about the book sale. I knew that they couldn't cancel it. The people running the book sale said that it would go on regardless, because the books were in place and the building would go to someone else for the next week.
I hoped that the sleet would begin melting on Thursday, but it didn't. The main roads were not too bad to drive on by that point, but all secondary roads were sheets of ice as well as all parking lots that hadn't been plowed.
On my Facebook page, I announced that I was closing my eBay and Etsy stores for a few days so that I wouldn't have to go to the post office. I knew that I was going to make it to the book sale regardless, but I wanted to avoid anything extra.
I have no problem driving on ice. I have rather new tires, since I had all four tires replaced in September after I popped a tire. The tires were close to wearing out, so it was logical to replace all of them instead of just one. I also knew that my decision meant that I would have good traction on ice during the upcoming winter season.
My concern about driving on ice, which is why I limit it as much as possible, is that I cannot control what other drivers do. Some people think that they can drive as normal and pull right out in front of another vehicle, not realizing that the other driver cannot stop on the ice. I try to stay home when roads are icy as much as possible so that I am not endangered by those drivers.
That I was going to the book sale was never in question. I was going, no matter what. The fairgrounds are 12 miles away from my home. In normal driving conditions, the trip takes around 20 minutes.
The start time of the sale was supposed to be 9 AM, but it was changed to 10 AM because of the roads. I felt that the start time should have been delayed to 1 PM. I didn't think many people would be there at the start time, and I would have preferred to have left later in the morning.
Nevertheless, I was going, and I was leaving very early since I couldn't be sure how early the diehards would show up. I can't remember exactly when I left, but it was probably around 7:20 AM. I reached the fairgrounds by around 7:50 AM.
My neighborhood was quite icy, but I got out of it fine. The main roads were partially iced, but they weren't a problem. The most trouble I had in my journey was at the fairgrounds. The ice had not been removed from most of the parking lots. Once I entered the fairgrounds and began driving across the pavement, the car's low traction warning light came on. I could tell that the tires had almost no traction on the ice. I was going around 10 mph, so I made it okay, and I soon reached an area with better traction. Finally, I made it to a parking space right in front of the building. There was hardly anyone there, which was not surprising.
The library sale was odd this year. The sale was extremely short on volunteers. Many volunteers had dropped because of covid fears, and many more had dropped because of the ice. They did not have anywhere near enough volunteers.
I was third in line, which was the closest I had ever been to being first in line. The lack of volunteers resulted in the belt barriers not being placed correctly. Some people moved them, and later, the person in charge of the entire sale got everything set right for our section.
The lack of volunteers meant that the sale was quite short on cashiers. We were told that we would be on the honor system. We were given tally slips and told to figure out our own totals. Many books were still in boxes in the outer lobby since not enough volunteers had shown up that week.
I will publish a separate post showing the books that I purchased at the sale. I could tell that the library had received far fewer donations than usual. I had suspected that would be the case. Remember that I believed that the books were probably going to local stores.
The library sale always overwhelmingly consists of library discards. After all, it is a library sale. I don't know what percent of the books are usually library discards, but let's say 75% of them are. At this year's sale, I would say that 90% of the books were library discards. The sale had about as many books as usual, but the books were two years' worth of library discards.
This meant that the books I most wanted to see at the sale simply were not there. The old series books were almost completely absent. They were never donated and had probably been sold to local stores.
On Saturday, February 26, I went back to the sale to see what I had missed. This resulted in me finding more vintage teen books. The sleet was melting pretty well by that point, but it meant trudging through deep puddles of melted sleet that were trapped by the sleet that hadn't melted.
I found that I was drained by all that had happened during the last full week in February. I began to have a more pronounced autoimmune reaction, which has gotten worse this week. I always have a delayed reaction where I notice the worst symptoms of a flare beginning around two weeks after an event. The library sale was two weeks ago today.
Today is Friday, March 11, which was supposed to be the last day of school before spring break. It is snowing, quite well in fact. We are getting more snow than was forecast, and school is closed again for remote learning. This is the latest in March we have ever been closed due to snow or ice, so this is quite an abnormal event, just like everything else from the last two years. We now have lost eight days of school this semester.
The bright side is that spring break started one day early due to the snow. 10 days at home is exactly what I need.
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Keeping a Group on Topic When Nobody Understands the Topic
Being a Facebook moderator should not be as impossible as it is. Sometimes I just want to scream into the void. The experience is that frustrating and infuriating.
I have already written about my great problems with the group Collecting Vintage Children's Series Books.
Running a Large Facebook Group Is Stressful and Not Fun
Facebook's Problematic Approach to Groups
As the creator of multiple groups, I want to have pretty photos in place to represent each group. Those photos have been my downfall. I have known it for years, but I didn't feel like removing the photos and turning them into informational banners.
This was the very first cover photo for the Collecting group.
That was the beginning of the downfall of the group. The original cover photo really emphasized the Hardy Boys series, and I should have created an image that overly emphasized Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. The membership began to increase rapidly. We began to have more and more problems as general children's book enthusiasts joined the group by the hundreds.
In 2017, I changed the group photo again, in part because Facebook kept changing the parameters for the group photo. Also, I had this misguided belief that placing more series in the photo would somehow help. I was so wrong.
The above photo stayed in place until last month. I have known for several years that the image was the problem, but I didn't feel like changing it. Finally, I did it.
I created it quickly, and I could make it better. The point is that we finally have a group image in place that tells the general public that the group is for Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and similar series. The group is not for all children's books that exist, and it is not for all series that exist.
Beginning the evening that I changed the group photo, the membership requests have just about stalled. Suddenly, the general public is not trying to join the group. This is a fabulous development.
We typically have had 20 or more new members per week. Sometimes over 100 people joined per week. Only three people have joined in the last week. I hope this trend continues.
I also put in place two membership questions.
1. Why do you want to join this group?
2. This group focuses on Stratemeyer Syndicate properties (like Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys) and similar rival series (like Judy Bolton and Three Investigators). Which Stratemeyer and non-Stratemeyer series do you like?
I have another group, Vintage Teen Books, which worried me from before I ever even created it, just because I knew what could, or rather would, happen if I didn't make all of the right decisions. I did not want the Vintage Teen Books group to follow the same trajectory as the Collecting group. Some of the same problems were inevitable, but I hoped that I could more aggressively prevent from having the group turn into one big problem.
The Vintage Teen Books group was badly needed, since unfortunately the existing Facebook groups lumped all children's books in with the middle-grade books and the teen books. I wanted a discussion group for only the teen books. I didn't want to see the other books.
I struggled with the group's name, since words like "teen" and "adult" (which is part of the category name "young adult") are search terms used by spammers to find groups where they can post links to adult content. I really, really struggled with the name. I decided to avoid the word "adult" and went with "teen," even though it would attract some of the same people.
Everything was fine at first, but Baby-Sitters Club has been the bane of my existence. That series is incredibly popular, but it is a middle-grade or tween series. The books are not teen books.
Teen books as defined for the group I created are books that feature characters who are in their late teens. The characters are of high school or college age. The books also must have been marketed to teens, featuring dating and social issues. They are not children's books.
Anyway, from early in the group's existence, members kept wanting to post about Baby-Sitters Club. I allowed some of it at first, but eventually I had to disallow all mention of that series. Members also kept posting about books published under Scholastic's Apple imprint. Those are middle-grade books, not teen.
I have continued to get more insistent about how those books are not within the group's focus. It's been a tough battle to fight. The battle was mostly lost before it began because of the reference book and existing Facebook groups that consider children's books, middle-grade books, and teen books to be all in the same genre. Oh my gosh, people!
I also think that people don't know that the word "tween" means something different than the word "teen." Tween books are middle-grade, and teen books are young adult.
Many years ago, I did not know what was meant by the classification "tween." I saw it in libraries. I knew it was something with children's books, but I didn't understand it. I'm sure that many people don't know what it means, which is why I use middle-grade hoping that people think of middle school or late elementary school years.
I knew that the Vintage Teen group photo was not helping the situation just like what happened with the Collecting group.
Prospective members were missing the message conveyed by the selection of books featured in the photo.
I wasn't ready to change the group photo. I put a membership question in place.
1. MUST ANSWER: This group focuses on pre-2000 vintage teen books that feature characters in their late teens (SVH, Fear Street, Christopher Pike, etc.). What are your favorites?
I then found that a frighteningly high percentage of prospective members were answering with "Baby-Sitters Club." Oh, no! No, no, no! BSC are not teen books!
Dear me. I then changed the group photo.
After I changed the group photo, I felt like membership requests slowed down slightly. However, too many people were continuing to answer the question with Baby-Sitters Club. What to do?!
I created a second membership question.
2. MUST ANSWER: Indicate your awareness that this group does not allow discussion of Baby-Sitters Club, middle-grade books, and children's books. None of these books should be listed in your answer to the first question.
Ha. If this doesn't work, then nothing will. Membership requests have now fallen off noticeably more than they had. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The second question should scare off the people who think the group is about the Baby-Sitters Club.
Today, I read an answer to the second question that made me very happy. The prospective member wrote, "I am totally aware and grateful." YES! This is someone like me who understands that children's and middle-grade books are not teen books. Just let us have a place to discuss our books.