Joy Beeson

1700 Park Avenue

Winona Lake, Indiana 46590

 574 268-9539

joybeeson@comcast.net

2017 May 10

To the World Wide Folklore Round Robin:

I obtained a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in an airport bookshop, but haven't had access to any of the other installments in non-Scholastic editions. Nobody can survive being edited by Scholastic; I was astounded when an author with Rowling's clout selected them.

My days are pretty tightly scheduled now that I spend twelve hours a day in bed, so most of the fiction I read was put up for comment on Baen's Bar, but I did just finish reading Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. (And, aack, it's due back at the library Real Soon Now. That establishes the first leg of my next long ride, which Weather Underground says will probably be Friday.)

Most of our cats were kidnapped in barns, but my baby sister rescued our first cat, George, from a barn after some unprintable tried to feed her to our uncle's hogs. I suspect that she had litter mates who didn't make it to the rafter. (We tried to change her name to "Georgina", but it wouldn't stick."

Our second cat was a genuine alley cat, who adapted to living in the suburbs quickly -- he tried to eat all of the first rabbit he killed, but was more restrained thereafter.

Earl and Erica, Fred and Frieda, and Al were all barn cats. I don't know what Al lived on when he was in the barn -- he looked a year younger than he was, and once we started feeding him regularly, he grew from kitten to tomcat in a few weeks. He has no clue as to what one should do with a mouse, and won't touch anything but commercial cat food. It is nice not to be so very careful where I leave the butter! He adapted to being an indoor cat almost at once; the barn owner suspected that he had been dumped.

I agree: if an adult can't read a child's book for pleasure, there is nothing in the book for the adult the child will become. Buying such a book for a child is the equivalent of stuffing him with cheap candy when he wants fresh fruit and red meat.