I discovered Kate Inglis’ blog, Sweet Salty, last summer, and her lyrical, magical, gut-wrenching stories of being a “ghost mother” caught at my heart and captured my imagination. She recently published a book (The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods) and proposed a meme with questions considerably more challenging than the typical “paper or plastic?” After way too much thought, here are my answers.
1) You are facing an epic journey. You may choose one companion, one tool and one vehicle from any book or film to accompany you. Or just one of the three. It's up to you. What do you choose?
Companion: Lad, the collie of Sunnybank Farm and a main character in Albert Payson Terhune’s dog books.
Tool: Strega Nona’s pasta pot so I would never be hungry.
Vehicle: I’m torn between Nancy Drew’s roadster, the Batmobile, and Black Beauty the horse, but I think I’ll go for Black Beauty: cars can break down at the most inconvenient of times, and good mechanics—or a Lucius Fox—can be hard to find.
2) You can escape to the insides of any book. Where do you go, and why?
Caddie Woodlawn. This book, which like the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, covers the childhood of a pioneer girl in the Midwest. But unlike the Little House books, which continues into Laura’s adulthood, Caddie Woodlawn’s story ended after just one book: I always was left wanting to know more. (I did discover a sequel when writing this meme, but I never knew of it until now.)
3) You can bring one literary character into your current life. Who do you choose, and why?
Anne of Green Gables. I read this series each summer for years when I was a child. Anyone who can quote Tennyson, die her hair green by accident, and break a slate over a boy’s head because he called her “carrots” is a friend of mine.
4) ______________ is my go-to book. I could read that book fifty-seven times in a row without a break for food or a pee and not be remotely bored. In fact I’ve already done that but it wasn’t fifty-seven times. It was sixty-four.
How can I possibly pick just one?
5) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most enviable? Maida Westabrook. My father, who has an internal homing beacon for used bookstores, used to bring home novels for me: Frances Parkinson Keyes’s historical fiction, Albert Payson Terhune’s dog books, and much more. One of his finds was a Maida book, about the young daughter of a loving businessman who helps his little girl create these miniature, child-friendly versions of adult places for her friends and herself: a “little shop,” a “little school,” a “little island.” I found them totally enthralling. I mean, just listen to the description: “All of her friends spend a happy summer in Maida’s perfect little house with everything a child could wish for.” Who wouldn’t find that enviable?
6) Of all the literary or film characters that made an impression on you as a kid, who was the most frightening?
Goodwife Cruff in The Witch of Blackbird Pond, who was so suspicious of Kit Tyler that she convinced her husband to accuse Kit as a witch in Puritan New England.
7) Every time I read Wuthering Heights, I see something in it that I haven’t seen before.
8) It is imperative that _________________ be made into a movie. Now. I am already picketing Hollywood for this—but if they cast _________________ as _________________, I will not be happy. I will, however, be appeased if they cast _________________.
9) _________________ is a book that should never be made (or should have never been made) into a film.
Answer to questions 8 and 9: Ages ago, I read a book about the making of Gone With The Wind, and it changed my thinking about books being made into movies. So often, readers and fans expect the movie to be a literal translation of the printed page, and realistically, filmmakers just can’t do that. Or if they did, it would result in a dreadful movie. There are exceptions, of course: the Harry Potter movies amaze me with their detail, special effects, and fidelity to the books. But most books are simply too complicated to be an effective movie, with their multiple characters and subplots. Think about it: a movie must go from start to finish in 90 minutes to (perhaps) three hours, but a book can take hours or days or months, as a reader digests and considers each plot development in her own time.
10) After all these years, the scenes in Little Women where Professor Bhaer chastises Jo for her “sensational” writing and then later proposes to her (which she accepts (!)) still manage to give me the queebs. How appalling of Louisa May Alcott to create such a memorable, independent character and then marry her off to a quasi-father figure who criticizes her writing.
11) After all these years, the scene where Almanzo Wilder gives Laura Ingalls a gold bar pin with a tiny house and lake etched on it for Christmas in These Happy Golden Years still manages to give me a thrill.
12) If I could corner the author Rachel Simmons, here’s what I’d say to her in one minute or less about her book, Odd Girl Out: "Thank God someone finally took girls’ social bullying seriously."
13) The coolest non-fiction book I’ve ever read is A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Every time I flip through it, it makes me want to discover a bundle of diaries and letters and transform them into a book, bringing an ordinary woman back to life.
For more classic books for children and young adults, click here.
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Holiday shop window scene in Paris.
Many shops and cafes had windows painted with holiday scenes and greetings. I could write a short story about our capers, particularly my dad’s many, many adventures—intended and unintended, from Le Marais to Notre Dame, and our sightseeing, but for the moment, I’ll stay with the shop windows, which were positively captivating.
A butcher shop window features a painting of St. Nicholas, his sleigh, and his reindeer. 
