Thrihyrne

That book sounds delightful! I just requested it at the library; thanks for the tip. :)

One of my favorite bits of Beverly Cleary's Ramona the Pest is when her kindergarten teacher is reading Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel to the class and a discussion starts of how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom if he was digging the basement of the town hall all day without stopping, as the book said.

Miss Binney faced the twenty-nine earnest members of the kindergarten, all of whom wanted to know how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom.

"Boys and girls," she began, and spoke in her clear, distinct way. "The reason the book does not tell us how Mike Mulligan went to the bathroom is that it is not an important part of the story. The story is about digging the basement of the town hall, and that is what the book tells us."

Miss Binney spoke as if this ended the matter, but the kindergarten was not convinced....Ramona could see there were something things she was not going to learn in school, and along with the rest of the class she stared reproachfully at Miss Binney.

I'm with Ramona!