My friend Melissa says my book club could run the city.

Among us we can count a marketing expert, a photographer, an Emmy- winning video producer, a corporate attorney turned social worker, and a writer.

These are just our day jobs.

For ten years, we’ve been a consistent thread in each other’s lives. For me personally, this at times has been life saving.

We’ve intentionally kept our numbers small. It just works. We’ve read more than 76 books, attended several plays, a few movies, had one overnight, and eaten countless meals together.

We’ve shared job changes, the birth of babies, big birthdays, a retirement, and kids inching their way toward adulthood way too fast.

When I say life saving, I’m not kidding. My strongest memory of these women is the day we went to the movie “The Descendants.” It was also our book choice. Afterwards, sitting in a coffee shop, the emotional movie probably got to me because I was facing my own life challenge. It was early days in my son Calvin’s chemo treatment. I remember looking at my four friends and sobbing, “I don’t know how I’m going to do this.” My friend Mary grabbed my hand and said, “We’ll do it with you.”

And they did.

Heart-jerking memories aside, I asked this smart, talented, amazing group of women (Am I bragging? Yes, I am!) to share their favorite kids’ books:

Claudia: My favorite books were anything Nancy Drew. She did stuff and solved crimes!

Carolyn Keene’s first book about Drew, “The Secret of the Old Clock” was written in 1930. The girl detective is still going strong today.

Mary: I loved Amelia Bedelia. She took things too literally – it was really funny. When she held a wedding shower, she took a hose out and sprayed the people.

A new series has been created based on the originals by Peggy Parish and illustrator Fritz Seibel. The official website celebrates Amelia Bedelia books old and new.

 

Alison: The Henry and Mudge books have really stayed with me. They are about a sweet boy and his slobbery dog. So few books about boys are about things other than cars and machines. This is about relationships.

Henry and Mudge are Max and Calvin approved! Cynthia Rylant’s books are a treat.

Kathy: I’ve saved all the Sandra Boyton books. They have something for kids and adults.

Max and Calvin and I always enjoying pulling out Boyton’s joyful books. See them read them in a previous blog post.

Thank you, friends!