In the early to late 1940's, comic books were our TV. If you saved your pennies, you might could buy a comic book every month.  And pennies were precious.

Back then, during some of those war years, America was so broke that the pennies were made of something besides copper--I think it was tin? We also used "mills," which were tough round cardboard something or other that were  currency--ten to the penny.  (That's what your city "Mill" taxes are--a tenth of a penny tax.) Where did the mills go? Pennies will be the next currency to vanish.

As well as pennies, we used our comic books as currency.  We traded them all the time.  Certain comics were worth more than others; everyone had a stack of comic books.  They were worth less if they had a detached cover, so we took really good care of out stash. (Some of those comics are now worth thousands.)

That's how we learned to read--and how to read from left to right.  Pictures and words.  I've always contended that comics are a wonderful way to get your kids to read.  They will almost always graduate to better literature.  We did.

So, I was pleased to read this week that the Newbery Medal shattered a glass ceiling for cartoonists who have been long been denigrated to a lower level of literature.  It was won this year by a cartoonist for his book about a seventh grader's difficulty as he tried to fit into a new school.  Lots of pictures.  Not so many words.

My mom had a rule--if you were reading, you didn't have to do housework.  It was an awesome rule.  I made sure that my nose was in a book all of the time.  And when I tired of comics, I moved on to The Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and a gradual transition to better and better literature. Then on to the classics.  But my love of the written word began with comics.  I had a huge stack to trade.  And did. Every Saturday was "trade" day on our block.