Chapter 7
From: julienking@
To: m.aldridge@
Subject: Re: Homework
Thank you for taking the time to compile all this information. In your professional opinion, where is the best place to start? Are any of these titles your favorite? Maybe I should start there.
Respectfully,
Julien King
From: m.aldridge@
To: julienking@
Subject: Re: Homework
I think there is an unwritten rule somewhere that says you cannot ask a librarian their favorite book.
It’s probably beside the one that says you can’t ask a parent who their favorite child is.
It’s simply impossible to choose. I love different books for different reasons.
Some I have felt down to the core of my being, hitting me in all the feels.
Others have influenced me in such a way that I look at the world differently.
Sometimes a book will offer me an escape right when I need it most. Or it will help me to understand and deepen my empathy for those around me.
So, sorry, no favorites. Just a deep love for the written word.
A most ardent bibliophile,
Martha
From: julienking@
To: m.aldridge@
Subject: Re: Homework
My humblest apologies for my ignorance. I didn’t realize my question was such an impossible one for a librarian to answer.
I suppose the rule doesn’t apply to simple book lovers such as myself, because I do have favorites.
Although, I grant you, the titles on the pedestal change quite frequently.
A favorite can still be considered as such even if it’s dynamic, can’t it?
One of our authors once told me whenever a reader asks her what her favorite book is that she’s written, she says the answer is always the one she’s currently writing.
Because of that, her favorite changes with each book.
Mine is like that. Right now, my favorite title is The Wager by David Grann, but before that it was The Letter Keeper by Charles Martin, and next week it might be something else entirely.
I still need a good place to start with this list you gave me, though. I suppose I could always begin at the top and make my way down, but I’d rather have the most crucial information frontloaded.
What was the book that you always seemed to be carrying around with you when you were a girl?
I think you might have been about eight at the time?
I remember I was doing something in the backyard and you were hiding in the bushes.
You wouldn’t tell me why, but I noticed you there a few times, and every time you had the same book in your hand. Do you remember that?
Ready to learn,
Julien
From: m.aldridge@
To: julienking@
Subject: Re: Homework
Oh wow! That brings back memories. I was reading The Secret Garden and pretending I was Mary Lennox and that I’d stumbled upon my own magical garden there in the rhododendrons.
I haven’t thought of that in a long time.
I think your mom gave me the book, actually.
I know mine didn’t because she was so upset with me when I tore a huge hole in my shirt when it got caught on a branch.
Maybe your own childhood favorite books are a good place to start.
What books did you sneak under your covers with a flashlight to read past bedtime?
Which ones did you beg your parents to read over and over to you?
Why did you like them so much? What was it about the writing or the characters or the plot that pulled you in?
Maybe read them again now as an adult and see if they still elicit those same feelings.
Once a reader, always a reader,
Martha
From: julienking@
To: m.aldridge@
Subject: Re: Homework
I asked my mom what my favorite books were when I was little, and apparently I loved Curious George.
She said she got so tired of constantly reading it to me that she hid it for two weeks just so she could get a break.
When I was a little older and ready for chapter books, she thought the Little House on the Prairie series would be a good place to start.
She said I threw a fit because I didn’t want to read books about girls in dresses, so we compromised and started with Farmer Boy, and I was hooked after that.
Because of your advice, I reread a couple of the books in the series.
I have to say, they hit a lot differently as an adult than I remember when I read them as a child.
Pa doing blackface in the minstrel show?
Ma’s racism to the natives? Fourteen-year-old Laura getting walked home by nineteen-year-old Almanzo?
I had to remind myself about the historical context of the time in which they were written, but it kind of made me a little uncomfortable. I hope that’s okay to admit.
Not all’s pure on the prairie,
Julien
From: julienking@
To: m.aldridge@
Subject: I’m going to need therapy
Why would you do this to me? Why would an author do this to a child?
I seriously think I might need therapy after reading Island of the Blue Dolphins.
I bawled my eyes out when Rontu died. Karana had already lost her father and brother and was left alone on an island.
She was only a child! But then she finally had a companion in Rontu and then he dies too!
Are all Newbery Medal books this tragic?
I’m not sure I’m going to recover from this.
Heartbroken,
Julien
From m.aldridge@
To: julienking@
Subject: Re: I’m going to need therapy
Sorry! I probably should have warned you about that one.
It might be a good rule of thumb to be wary of any books with dogs in them.
You especially should skip Where the Red Fern Grows if you don’t want your heart to be ripped out of your chest. Although it’s the mark of a great author to be able to evoke such emotion from the reader.
It’s okay to cry,
Martha
1:17 pm
Unknown number
I decided to go on a field trip for research today.
A selfie of Julien in the children’s section of a bookstore loads on my phone. I save his contact information, then type back:
Have fun!
Julien
Tell me why there’s a book titled I Need a New Butt! and another one called The Long Journey of Mister Poop. Is this a thing with kids’ books? See who can come up with the most shocking title?
I bite back my laugh.
Martha
Did you pick either of them up and look inside?
Julien
Obviously. I had to see what they were about.
Martha
I think you just answered your own question. Also, The Long Journey of Mister Poop is actually a pretty good book on the digestive system.
1:25 pm
Julien
I didn’t realize John Grisham wrote kids’ books.
Martha
Found the Theodore Boone series, I see.
Julien
I wonder if Squire should approach an already established bestselling adult author about writing a series of books for children.
1:37 pm
Julien
Okay, I understand now why you told me to revisit a favorite childhood book.
I found a copy of The Story of Ferdinand on the shelf and just reread it.
I had forgotten how much I loved this story as a boy.
Talk about nostalgia. I bet parents go looking for the stories that impacted their own childhood to read to their kids and share that experience. Have you found that to be true?
Martha
Most definitely
1:52 pm
Julien sends a picture of a plushie of Curious George holding a copy of The Secret Garden.
I find myself looking at the picture a lot longer than necessary, smiling to myself the whole time.