What Problems Did E.l.konigsburg Face As Child

what problems did e.l.konigsburg face as child

Micro-memories of past holidays « Feminéma

When I was in grad school and my parents got the new house, the room where I was housed over the holidays turned out to be a micro holiday miracle:

My mom had positioned the bed right next to a shelf of some of her favorite children's books from back during her teaching days. Thus, every holiday visit turned into an opportunity for regression.

I regressed not just because I was 31 and

still in grad school
still refusing to marry or have children, both on principles my parents surely found somewhat eccentric
still coming home for every winter break
still answering questions like "how's your dissertation coming along?" (a question for which there are no comforting answers)

Yup: I also regressed because I'd stay up late every night re-reading classic children's books, most of which I'd also re-read the previous year.

It's a regression to the ca. 12-year-old me, who upon finishing a book immediately flipped back to page 1. That practice of re-reading seems to have ended in high school; even now I only re-read those books I keep assigning in my classes (and let's face it: class assignments don't count).

Thus, what fun to re-read childhood favorites like E. L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, or — silliest of all — Roald Dahl's The Witches.

(This title is excellent and I also quite liked the film version, with Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch. In contrast, I think the film version of Matilda [1996] actually improves on Dahl's original book, and features the best little Mara Wilson in the title role and Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman as her horrible parents.)

If I was prepared for much late-night weeping, I'd re-read E. B. White's Charlotte's Web, the sweetest and saddest tale about friendship ever.

In recent years the room has been reorganized again, such that the children's books have been shelved in some other part of the house. Somehow the fact that those spines aren't sitting there next to me every night has prevented me from hunting them down and staying up every night till 3am, giggling over that deliciously scary/silly moment in The Witches when the little boy sees all the witches whipping their wigs off their scabby heads and scratching their scalps with their clawed hands.

Don't worry: I still do a lot of reading while I'm there. I still seem to arrive with a minimum of four books.

But thinking about how different this year's visit was has made me want to visit the library and pick up a couple of titles. And maybe push Matilda up to the top of my Netflix queue.

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2012年2月7日火曜日

What Problems Did E.l.konigsburg Face As Child