1. 04 January 2010 ยท 09:33 PM

    Reading list: Age 12

    My mom called this weekend to say she’d been hunting through the boxes of old junk she stores at her cabin in Vermont (as opposed to the old junk in the filing cabinet at her house in Savannah) and she was sending me a care package.

    My mom operates in declarative sentences, not in explanations. So it’s just “I put some stuff in the mail to you.” Not “I sent you x, y and z because it reminded me of you when you were a, b, or c age.”

    The mystery package arrived today. When I opened it — no note, natch — I found three little books that I remember from when I was in junior high.

    The first, an illustrated fable about a mouse who gets left behind at Christmastime, was written by the father of one of my friends. Her dad had signed the title page, which was a very big deal to the 12-year-old me, who hoped to be a writer one day.

    The second, Masquerade by Kit Williams, is an elaborate puzzle disguised as a children’s book. A card tucked inside the jacket is from my aunt and uncle, telling me to “get well soon.” I often had colds as a kid, so this illness probably wasn’t a big deal. Nice to know they kept an eye out for me, though.

    I love, love, loved the last book, but I don’t quite remember why. If You’re Afraid of the Dark Remember the Night Rainbow is full of odd little prescriptions for life. Its sayings could be Hallmarky, but the surreal colored-pencil illustrations save it from cute overload.

    A few excerpts:

    • If tomorrow morning the sky falls … have clouds for breakfast.
    • If the clock stops … use your own hands to tell time.
    • If you have butterflies in your stomach … invite them into your heart.
    • If it’s the last dance … dance backwards.

    And my favorite, which came out long before Ben & Jerry made it into an ice cream flavor:

    • If there’s no happy ending … make one out of cookie dough.

    I was, ahem, rather extremely introverted at age 12 — worried about the future, but dreamy about my place in it. The flights of fancy in Remember the Night Rainbow helped dispel my fears and spark my imagination. I’m sure I was reading all kinds of “serious” books at the time (I know this because that same year I stole my older sister’s copy of The Scarlet Letter and finished it in a weekend), but I’m glad mom sent me the whimsical books instead.

    Next time I start cursing about losing my keys I’ll remember that the Night Rainbow solution is easy: “throw away the house.”

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