Lowering the Bar
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Have you heard about nine-year old Alec Greven? HarperCollins Children’s Books is set to publish his book How to Talk to Girls this fall. This book is aimed at the elementary/middle school boy crowd that can’t quite figure out how to move, or make some moves, on their playground crushes. I presume that this is more than pick-up lines. I may be hoping for too much.
OK. Now, this is a crowd that I don’t think really needs more encouragement to pursue girls. It comes quite naturally.
I suppose this will make it into the Scholastic Book Club catalogs our kids bring home. Anything for a buck. It will probably end up in the curriculum, too, in many schools where they are trying to encourage boys to read more. It would probably work. Especially if it has pictures. Reluctant readers no more!
But this part of the article is the most amazing, the part that really caught my attention. It’s what I mean by “Lowering the Bar”. I hope it was meant as a joke, otherwise it qualifies for the Bonehead of the Year Award. Here it is:
When HarperCollins Children’s Books publishes Alec’s work, he’ll join the ranks of famous authors such as C.S. Lewis, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe.
That says it all.
