My Twin

I saw my twin at a Halloween party. She looked uncomfortable and slightly sad.

"I'm a spirit of Mordor," she explained. She had hand-stitched a simple costume; her older daughter, she said, had recently discovered an obsessive interest in Middle-Earth.

My twin added that her younger daughter was ill--the younger daughter is pretty much always ill--and that her spouse was on "sickbed duty." The spouse is a quirky professor of physics. It's evident that my twin admires her spouse--and, also, that she has to tie his shoes for him.

"Clearly, I'm a pumpkin," I declared. Then, a confession: "I had a daydream about becoming a pencil sharpener, but I just didn't move fast enough."

This is all a prelude. What we want to discuss is picture books. We get there--finally--and it's like we have attained precious oxygen supplements at the top of Mount Everest.

"EXTRA YARN is outstanding. And then when you see what Jon Klassen does on his own.....Such a brilliant writer...."

This is the highlight of my weekend.

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Liars and Saints

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