Award-winning author Beverly Cleary gave us books about Ramona and the kids from Klickitat Street. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, find out how much you remember from the books. I scored miserably because I read some of these so long ago, and others weren’t written until I was an adult. Link

Besides threatening to put local artisans and small businesses who can’t afford the test (at $4,000 a pop), the law has another unintendend consequence: library may ban children’s books in order to comply:

The Consumer Product Safety Act was passed by Congress Aug. 14 in reaction to findings that some toys imported from China contained dangerous levels of lead. President Bush signed the legislation, which includes stricter limits on lead levels in children’s products.

The American Library Association said it fears the law has unintended consequences, and libraries may face the choice of closing their children’s sections, banning children under the age of 12 or completing expensive lead testing for every book. [...]

This unintended consequence of the new law isn’t the first to rear its head since Congress passed it. A flurry of complaints from second-hand retailers afraid of being bankrupted by the new requirements prompted the commission to release a clarification on Jan. 8 stating the law doesn’t require all children’s items to be tested.

However, it does make it illegal to distribute any children’s item that exceeds the lead limits, said Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Joseph Martyak. Though libraries, schools, and thrift shops aren’t required to test books for lead, they could face civil or criminal penalties if a book with an elevated lead level leaves its shelves.

Link – Thanks Tiffany!

Whether you’re an illustrator, a parent, or merely nostalgic for these long out-of-print titles, the Golden Gems blog is sure to please.

This one to the left is Never Pet Pat a Bear – a Book about Signs by Mabel Watts, illustrated by Art Seiden, 1971.

Link