Yes, we did have a rainbow tonight as the thunderstorm moved east and the setting sun came out for a last showing. And our neighbor gave us (beautiful, purple, sweet, ripe) plums from the tree in her yard.
I've finally struck treasures in my closet cleaning endeavor. Old children's books with beautiful illustrations and some with not so beautiful illustrations. Yes, the copy of Little Black Sambo inscribed "Christmas 1969" from my grandparents. I would have been two-and-a-half. Very big on reading, these grandparents. My copy, "the only authorized American edition", has the original 1899 illustrations. Though I always like the idea of outwitting tigers and eating lots of pancakes with tiger butter, I never did like the pictures, even as a child. How odd that I keep the book because of the awful pictures.
The rest of the books are wonderful: Children of Many Lands, beautifully illustrated, a 1903 edition of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm inscribed in perfect copperplate penmanship back in 1912 to people I don't know. Books for little boys (which I never ever read) with my grandfather's bookplate on the inside cover.
As an aside, you publishing people who only publish books about little boys because little boys will only read about other little boys, but little girls will read anything? You need to talk to some actual little girls. This little girl found books about little boys anathema. I mean, yuck! Why would I want to read books about nasty creatures like my brothers? I read books to escape from boys! My elementary school library had a complete set of "Childhood of Famous Americans" biographies and I searched carefully through them and read only biographies of girls. I read all the biographies of the girls twice each before I finally broke down and decided that boys of color were almost as good as girls and started reading the biographies of black boys and Indian boys. Only when I ran out of them did I deign to read biographies of white boys.
But anyway, I have these beautiful books. I seem to have hit the wall with my getting rid of stuff project. On discovering that I was missing book three from a well-loved series, I went and ordered a copy. (But I'll totally give the complete series away to my friend's kid. Eventually. Before she outgrows it.)
Yep. I'm losing ground here.
399 words | July 5, 2007 09:46 PM | Real true story