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On Books

 My daughter is falling for books. Not reading. She has no interest in phonics (and in this way she reminds me of me). But she likes to listen--especially to the tales of Jack and Annie in the Magic Tree House.


I love what Susie herself does with words. She knows that her doctor--Dr. Buono--is friendly, so she has invented a kind of shorthand; the doctor is now "Dr. Elmo." Susie knows that a hotel is a source of excitement, like "show and tell." So a hotel is now a "hoe and tell." Aware that dragons are a common wellspring of terror, Susie sometimes speaks breathlessly about Boris Karloff and "Victor Dragon-stein."

So I appreciate Donna Leon's recent thoughts on words--she has written about how words become seductive (below).

One of the best kids' books I know of is--literally--nonsense. It's James Marshall's "A Pocketful of Nonsense," and it features Marshall in a "Dr. Seuss" mode.

There was an old man of Blackheath--
Who sat on his set of false teeth.
Said he with a start:
"Oh, Lord! Bless my heart!
I've bitten myself underneath!"

There are other writers in the world--but it's just fine to spend your life going back and forth between Donna Leon and James Marshall.





















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