Hi everyone, it's Rachel. I'm here with just a friendly reminder that today and every Sunday through

the end of the year, my colleague Gilbert Cruz is going to be here. He's talking arts and culture

with a rotating cast of critics, editors, reporters, and writers. This week, with kids back in the

classroom, Gilbert and his guests talk classic books.

The ones that you may have loved reading in school, or maybe the ones you didn't really love reading in school, but kind of love now.

You'll also hear about books that could help kids fall in love with reading.

I hope you'll take a listen.

Welcome, everyone, to the Sunday special.

I'm Gilbert Cruz, the book review editor here at the Times.

All across America, kids are back in school.

Here in New York City, school has just started, but some kids, this is always surprising to me, have been back

for weeks. Regardless of where you're located, children are eventually going to be assigned

some books to read, and those kids will look at that list and maybe they'll think,

what the heck are these? And maybe their parents will look at that list and they will think,

what the heck are these? Are we still

reading of mice and men? And so today we're talking about books, especially the books we read in

school and the books we continue to read in school. Here with me to talk about all this is my

colleague from the book review, Sadie Stein, whenever I think I am a well-read person, all I have to do is

look at Sadie, who sits right next to me in the office. She's read an astonishing number of books,

and I'm immediately put in my place. Sadie, welcome. Thank you. No pressure. I mean, you're going to find

a lot of glaring holes, I think, in my early reading, but we'll see.

And joining us from California, this is very exciting.

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