A Fox Jumped Up One Winter's Night

the horrible thing about memory is that if you don't remember everything of a given memory, it tends to bother you for as long as it take you to remember. if that makes sense.

sometimes i dredge up old choir music and try to remember all the lyrics. a friend of mine remembered a particular stuffed animal she was attached to as a child and ransacked ebay for it. i don't know how she found it there since its probably at least 15 years old, but she bought it.

i remembered a book i had in 1st grade. it was a little golden book, the kind with the gold spine. hardly anyone sells these kinds of books anymore and if they do, its only the vintage classics: The Pokey Puppy, The Good Humor Man, etc. these titles are being republished under Random House as well as a number of Richard Scarry books that are also classics. the one i remembered had art similar to Jan Brett's, but i knew she didn't illustrate it because i looked for it under her name. this particular memory bothered me because i remember the feeling i got whenever someone read it to me or whenever i looked at the pictures. its such a strong memory that i had to keep pursuing the book until i found it and was satisfied.

it's called A Fox Jumped Up One Winter's Night, adapted by Nina Barbaresi. i googled the title once i found it on a collector's website and found that most of the copies being sold are used. the two copies i found on amazon that were new cost $30!! i'd hate to buy a used copy online for $0.28 if i haven't gotten to inspect it first. i get a little crazy about the condition of books. but ha HA!! i found it!!! nothing can possibly compare to the triumph of finally finding it!

the other three books from my childhood that i distinctly remember, i've found in the bookstore: A Chair for my Mother, Goodnight Moon (of course), Happy Birthday Moon, and the one by Barbara Cooney about the woman who plants a lot of lilacs...Miss somethingorother. but there are others i've recalled just by coming across them. i had to call in some pre-orders once and i saw Rainbabies and remembered when Mrs. Simental used to read it to us in computer class. i never knew Jim LaMarche did the illustrations. another time i came across the Rough-faced Girl, one of David Shannon's early works, and again, i remembered the haunted feeling i got when listening to the story and looking at the pictures. i was reorganizing the caldecott section and found Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters. i'm glad that a lot of the books i remember are still in print. but its sad how quickly books can get to be out of print. a series of books called Glory that have only been around for two or three years is now out of print. it doesn't take that long. Ted Taylor who wrote The Cay called us once and i answered not knowing it was him. he asked me if we had one of his books in stock and i put him on hold to check. alex said it was out of print, so i relayed the message. i felt horrible when he told me who he was. he has a lot of books still selling, but it must be painful to know that your book is no longer being printed.

other than finally putting an end to my nagging curiousity, i had a horrible day. almost everyone i encountered today--in person and via phone--irritated me because they felt it was a good day to pick on me. my professor, my sister, my sister's husband. this and the frustrations of people being extremely rude in ES, having another ardurous choir class, and the people on the road...today was not a good day. after dinner, i said to my mom, "is today tuesday?" and she gave me a pained half-laugh and said, "yes, only tuesday" and we dwelled a little in commiseration. maybe its just the weather. they say that when these infernal winds are here, the suicide rate goes up. such a handy statistic to remember.