The second day before Thanksgiving

Not for boys

That guy I married and I are in the midst of a running skirmish concerning the classification of "girl books" and "boy books."  He contends that unless a story involves pirates/battles/mountain climbing/deep space, etc., boys simply won't be interested, and there is no point in trying to get them to read them.  I think that this is terribly limiting.  Girls can and do read both "girl" and "boy" books; why should boys be cut off from so much good literature?

This is one book that has been an exemplum in this argument.  I brought it home from the library, and we had this conversation:

Me: Did you read the Cranberry books as a child?
Him: No.
Me: I think you would like them.  The pictures are great, and there's a sea captain!
Him: It looks like a girl book.
[later]
Me: Did you read Cranberry Thanksgiving?
Him: Yes.
Me: Wasn't it good?
Him: It's a girl book.
Me: But there's a sea captain!
Him: He doesn't sail.

So there you have it.  Clearly, the Cranberry series by Wende and Harry Devlin, containing lovely writing and beautiful, detailed pictures, are unsuitable for boys.

From Cranberry Thanksgiving

Maggie darted about like a black-stockinged bird, in search of wood for the fireplace. She and her grandmother lived at the edge of a lonely cranberry bog in New England, and the winds were cold at the edge of the sea. Today, Mr. Whiskers was helping Maggie with her chores and they soon had armfuls of firewood.

"Happy Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Whiskers." Maggie smiled at her friend.

That wasn't his real name of course. It was Uriah Peabody, but Maggie had called him Mr. Whiskers ever since she could remember. Maggie was very fond of Mr. Whiskers. Her grandmother was not. "Too many whiskers and not enough soap," she often said to Maggie.