>Mind Games

by Roger Sutton
May 13, 2008 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>Gawker has a story up about games the D.C. Metro has dreamed up to entertain commuters and/or distract them from suicidal thoughts. My longstanding subway game is less complicated: I pretend I'm an extra in a movie scene, and I have to pick out the one other person on the platform or in the car or who is the star of the film, and decide what the movie is about. It's quite diverting.

I also have a new game inspired by my allergic reaction to the title of Jerry Spinelli's latest book, Smiles to Go. It got me wondering why children's book titles seem to tolerate more sugar than do books for adults, and that got me thinking about what adult books with children's-book titles would be like. For example, Tuck Everlasting is surely a Jan Karon novel, last in a series, about the picturesque town of Tuck, itself tucked away in the timeless foothills of the Piedmont. And The Chocolate War is by John Le Carre and involves Colombian narco-terrorism. Charlotte's Web? Linda Fairstein thriller about an internet-adept serial killer in stilettos. If you're as easily amused as I, add yours in the comments.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Charlotte

>The Four Story Mistake, by Peter Mayle. Mr. Mayle sells his house in Provence and bites off more than he can chew as he trys to restore an old farm in upstate NY.

Posted : May 19, 2008 03:50

CLM

>I played a different subway game years ago in NY in which I counted readers reading Grisham on my car as I headed downtown. I had decided if I got to 20 that meant I got the day off. One day I ran into the president of Penguin (where I worked) at 59th Street, and he noticed my counting and asked why. When I shared the rules, he entered into it enthusiastically (although pointed out that since we were then the publishers of Stephen King, it would be more advantageous to count his readers) and we were both disappointed when we only got as high as 17 before we reached the stop near Hudson Street.

Posted : May 17, 2008 07:38

Jenny

>Coraline by Jacques Costeau

The Last Guru by Deepak Chopra

Posted : May 16, 2008 08:33

Kate Fall

>You're all cracking me up.

The Giving Tree by Tom Wolfe. The fictional memoir of Hendrix Cooperson coming of age on a commune growing organic fruit.

Posted : May 16, 2008 04:16

JLarios

>Millions by James Frey. In which he forgets about all those little pieces and talks about how lucrative it is to make up your life story.

Posted : May 15, 2008 02:53

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