In many ways, those things rankle me more now than they did when I first read the book in the third grade (and made a mean shoebox diorama to boot).

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Not that I'm necessarily equating the two in terms of literary merit, but I remember when I discovered "The Hardy Boys" in fifth or sixth grade: After reading the first book, I was so smitten I begged my parents to buy me the remaining fortysomething volumes for my birthday.

WSJ: The Historian's Stories

The book will still be available to older students, but it was removed from the 6th-grade reading list because one parent found a paragraph in the book that he believed was insulting and denigrating to Mormons, and young children should not be introduced to the religion through the book.

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His first performance with a dummy was while presenting a book report to his small grade school class.

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One of our other planners first became interested in investing and personal finance when his dad, who was a stockbroker at the time, gave him a book on investing in the 4th grade and he actually read it.

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Another five are high school or grade school dropouts, proving that street smarts can often trump book smarts.

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HypoVereinsbank, for example, says that sub-investment-grade loans actually account for less than 30% of its North American book.

ECONOMIST: Refuse in a storm