A Blast From The Past

The librarian left bright red papers in our mailboxes.  What was your favorite book as a child? 

I loved my illustrated copy of Washington Irving's tales, even though most of them scared me silly.  The Headless Horseman's cape flying behind him as his horse raced through the darkness was only tolerable because I was surrounded by my stuffed animals.  Why I thought it was a good idea to read myself to sleep that way remains a mystery to this day.

I loved Nancy Drew, and the little blue bound biographies at school, and A. A. Milne's poems and Pooh.  If pressed, I can recite Disobedience, another terrifying tale. Again, a lost mother is not the best notion to take to bed.

But this one,

The Pink Motel, a 1960 Weekly Reader Book Club selection, was the hands down winner.  

Miss P. DeGree, who owned poodles.  Miss Ferry, the artist.  Marvello, the magician.  I read and reread that mystery, taking the characters and the plot with me into adulthood.

All my blogonyms?  Miss P. DeGree started me off.  Mysteries?  My go-to genre.  And Miss Ferry's notion that meals should start with dessert is the reason FlapJilly remembers the breakfast we ate the day her brother was born.  Who could forget whipped cream and sprinkles?

So I Googled the author's name - Carol Ryrie Brink - and filled in the librarian's form, and I've spent the day walking in the sand on the Florida beach in front of that pink motel.