Kudos to my elementary school teachers

As I was looking at different lists of classic children's books to read, I found that a lot of them included more modern books. Yes, they all had "A Little Princess" and "Alice in Wonderland," but a lot of them were newer. While looking the lists over, I found I had actually read a lot of what they consider classics:

"Tuck Everlasting"
"Bridge to Terebithia"
"My Side of the Mountain"
"The Indian in the Cupboard"
"Island of the Blue Dolphins"

And so on. I've always appreciated my elementary school teachers. And I always felt like we were reading good books. But to see the lists and see how many of these books I read way back then, I loved those teachers that much more. 

Granted one of the things I read that I remember most vividly was the bit of Beowulf that was in our reading book - how does one forget the page with the monster swinging his bloody torn-off arm at people - but still, that's a classic, so kudos to those teachers. :)