10. I still have to suppress a giggle at the lines: “Oh, oh, see big Dick!” or “Big, big Dick” and even “I can’t find Dick.”

9. There are no big supermarkets only corner grocers with local produce or what we now call “Buy Local” establishments.

Corner grocer

8. Their house is so clean and tidy I have house envy. Messiness in their house is so noteworthy it makes for a major plotline –like the time Sally spilled talcum powder on Puff the cat.

7. The family eats dinner together sitting around a table.

6. Sally is always doing something Funny.

5. These kids are always doing something – making boats, sailing boats, painting chairs, cooking, playing hide and seek or getting Spot to pull Sally around in a wooden box. There are no TVs or iPads.

Doing

4. Thorin loves these books more than even the Frozen, Star Wars and Wreck-It Ralph readers.

3. The Dick and Jane series actually employs sight words. Most of the “reader” type books don’t and they are really endorsements for Disney films.

2. As the series continues the are plot lines become more complex including intentional humor. Don’t get me wrong it’s not David Sedaris but we chuckle.

1. Last Saturday morning Thorin, did something he has never done—he walked in the den with two Dick and Jane, Level 2 books. He sat down and read them both without being asked and without help to Ward and I. He did it again today with me. I suggested it was time for Level 3. He agreed.