The Accidental Adventures of India McAllister

This book came from one of my library-dash-to-all-the-shelves-and-grab-the-first-book-I-see trips. It's a kids' book that was sort of fun to read, but it surprised me a little bit. See, I grew up reading about Peter Rabbit and Ramona Quimby, who taught me such essentials as not to steal from my neighbor's farm and that toothpaste should remain in the tube until I'm ready to use it. This book was a little different. It introduced us to India (who was named after the ink, not the country, by her bohemian artist mother) and her (as we would call it in the Midwest) non-traditional family and lifestyle. So we've got the artsy mom (who leaves India to fend for herself when she's in the middle of a painting jag), the long-distance dad (whose new boyfriend makes India a little uncomfortable because of his Swedish accent), the boy who's her best friend (Ramona never got jealous when her friend Howie played with other girls) and the myriad of schoolmates and neighbors that make up her topsy-turvy life. Aw, that's sweet.

Hey, whatever, it was cute. It was just quite a far cry from the books I read when I was a kid where the most dramatic thing that happened was the kids got caught out in the rain while playing with their tin-can stilts- so it was sort of sad for me to realize just how far behind the times I really am. God save my poor children if I ever have any- they'll be stuck reading things like The Babysitters Club and Sleepover Friends and will miss out completely on all the enlightened books they could be checking out that would help them understand this new world we live in...