At some point when I was a teenager, I weeded out my bookshelf, and put some old favorites in a bag that ended up either in the basement or attic. The bag of old books found its way into a large box of stuffed animals, vinyl records and a hand-embroidered map of the Roman Empire that I'd made for my 9th grade World Cultures class. The box found its way to Maryland when my parents moved here from New Jersey thirteen years ago.
This weekend, I went through the boxes, and found my bag of old friends. There was Madelyn L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time trilogy, plus The Moon by Night, which I remember devouring while on vacation-- and have never found in a bookstore or library when looking for books for my daughters. There were a few Paul Zindel books, and then my absolute favorite children's book of all time-- The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater. I remember seeing this listed in a Scholastic Books catalog in fourth grade, and finding it funny because at the time, my father was commuting to New York City through the Hoboken, NJ train station. I ordered it, and must have read it three or four times back to back. The image of the escaped 226 pound chicken named Henrietta roaming the streets of Hoboken never failed to make me laugh.
I look forward to rereading my old books over the next few weeks. It seems in a way like I discovered some old friends.
