Books for the times

As the stock market sinks lower every day, and many parents fear the loss of a job even if they haven't lost it yet, kids are caught up in the gloomy worries that pervade the media. Now is the time for children's librarians to remember some of the children's books that give a glimpse of life in hard times and fortunately Slate magazine has come up with a slideshow to remind us of some of the best. The old favorites like Little House on the Prarie and the Five Little Peppers and How they Grew remind us that hard times are nothing new and children in the past faced even more difficult circumstances than kids today. And more recent books deal even more realistically with the tensions and insecurities that children face during tough times. These books may be a lifeline for some children in today's libraries.