Synchronicity

When I was in elementary school, the Tulsa paper put out an ad soliciting children to do book reviews on some of the kiddie lit. advance copies they received. I signed up. Initially, I wrote about the Chronicles of Narnia (to get my courage up), but I think I wrote two more, one on Hank the Cowdog, the other about The Boy and His Otter, by A.R. Lloyd. Unfortunately, although I loved the book, I lost track of my copy, and I don't know where any of my juvenile press clippings are. To complicate things, although I could picture the cover clearly, I'd forgotten the exact title and author. I've searched for it over the years, but never found it. I probably would have turned to Book Stumpers sooner or later.

In January, I visited my friend Tami in the Schenectady area, and we went to the Moon and River Cafe with our friend Cecile. They had several shelves of books, so while the mamas talked, our children browsed. After flipping through some sort of Wild Kingdom book, Will turned to cookbooks, and Posy rummaged on her own for a while. A few minutes later, I heard, "Mama, look at this one! It has an otter!" I looked up, and there it was. We bought it on the spot, and Posy and I are reading it now.

Sharing reading interests with the kids is one of my favorite things about being a mom. I love that one of my own children delivered this book back into my hands.