Bedtime Reading

If you are in that window of parenting where your kid is too old to have picture books read to them at bedtime, but too young to be able to read chapter books for themselves, I can recommend Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, in particular Volume One, The Bad Beginning, which has legal maneuverings as one of its principal plot devices. It contains this charming passage, which, if you are a law professor, will allow you to open up a dialog with your little one about what exactly it is that you do for a living:

There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, many types of people, and everybody wants to read something different. … But one type of book that practically no one likes to read is a book about the law. Books about the law are notorious for being very long, very dull, and very difficult to read.

It also records a short judicial opinion, uttered by the fictitious but insightful jurist, Justice Strauss:

"I'm afraid this dreadful nonsense is the law."

And my son still wants to be an veterinarian. What gives?