I need help....

Ana is reading at somewhere above a "J" level. J seems to mean "A Porcupine Named Fluffy", which I just outright bought her for Christmas because she kept taking it out for school and I thought she should be fair to the other children.

Last year she was among the best readers in her class, reading at a "G" level. Children reading above an "F" level were to write five sentences in their reading log over the summer.

The teachers judge what level a book is and write the letter with a sharpie on the cover. It's not just this school, I've bought used books that clearly come from other schools that have the same system.

How do I know what level a book is? What's a reasonable range of level for first grade when they started teaching reading in kindergarten? I want to get (more) books for the classroom as a gift, but I want to get books that are most useful, not ones that will be too hard or too easy for most children most of the year. How is this determined?

Help? Please?

My grandmother is, in some ways, a very interesting person

(Well, I think she's interesting anyway, but she's *my* grandmother, so....)

Yesterday, for one reason or another, she neglected to make her bed. And as she got up to head into bed at midnight, she noticed this. "Oh, how could I forget to make my bed? Look at that, and I always like to see a nicely made bed. Why don't you go on the other side and help me out?"

Now, I'm familiar with the argument "Why bother making it if you're just going to mess it up again?", and would normally never use that argument on my beloved grandmother, but all the same I gotta say that I never thought I'd see somebody make their bed mere *seconds* before pulling down the covers and climbing in!

Operation: Convince Bonne-Maman to Take the Cat was unsuccessful. Apparently HER mother used to love cats to the extent that if the cat was in a chair, and there were no other free chairs, you couldn't move the cat to sit down. (Her mother also used to hate the idea of killing and eating her own rabbits, so she'd sell the rabbits she'd raised and then use that money to buy somebody *else's* rabbits to kill and eat. The things I never knew...!) So Bonne-Maman isn't very fond of animals and doesn't want a cat, not even the cutest itty bitty kitty you ever met.

Which means I'm still trying to give him away! Now, he's such a sweetheart I'd be glad to keep this cat, which is why it is imperative that I give him away before I cave and end up keeping him anyway. HELP ME OUT, GUYS!