A E
Number 13
(March 2008) “It is the function of some people to be a lamp and some to be a mirror. I have
been very pleased to function as a mirror of others’ work.” – Arne Nixon
THEMAGIC MIRROR
Everyone is invited to hear Fresno native author and poet
Gary Soto speak for the Friends of the Madden Library on
Friday, May 9th, at the Alice Peters Auditorium on the
Fresno State campus. A reception at 6 p.m. will be
followed by his talk, “Local News” (the title is based on
his book of short stories about growing up in Fresno), at
6:30 p.m.
Soto, the Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing
at UC Riverside, is the author of ten poetry collections for
adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a finalist
for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the
National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many
magazines, including Ploughshares, The Iowa Review,
Ontario Review, and Poetry. He has won awards from
the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts
Council, the American Education Association, and the
Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
The poet is well known, too, as a writer for children
and young adults, for titles like Too Many Tamales,
Snapshots from the Wedding, Baseball in April,
Novio Boy, Cesar Chavez, Jesse De La Cruz, Mercy on
these Teenage Chimps, The Afterlife, and Chato’s
Kitchen, a picture book about a sneaky, “low-riding”
barrio cat, which has the
dubious distinction of
having been banned in
Clovis (and later reinstat-ed
in the schools there).
Admission is free for
members of ANCA or the
Friends of the Madden
Library; for all others it is
$2. Please reserve a seat
by calling Kellie Willis at
(559) 278-5790 or via
e-mail to kelliew@csu-fresno.
edu.
ANCA, the Arne Nixon Center
Advocates, invites everyone to its
sixth annual Secret Garden Party on
Sunday, April 20th, from 3 to 5 p.m.
The party will be held in a beautiful
north Fresno garden, full of shady
paths and secret hideaways. The
exact location will be revealed to
underwriters and ticket holders
upon registration. This year’s
party honors author, librarian, and
Booklist columnist Michael Cart, who
is a major donor to the Arne Nixon
Center and a founding member of
its Governing Committee. The
party theme, “Passions and
Secret Garden Party: April 20 Gary Soto to speak: May 9
Pleasures,” is taken from Cart’s latest book, Passions and
Pleasures: Essays and Speeches about Literature and
Libraries.
Michael Cart is the country’s foremost expert on
young adult literature, so it is fitting that this year’s en-tertainment
features a group of talented young people
—members of the Junior Company of Roger Rocka’s
Dinner Theatre. The Garden Party will raise funds to buy
special rare materials, including five original illustrations
by the Caldecott-winning artist, Leonard Weisgard, for
his 1949 edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
and Through the Looking Glass.
Underwriters are needed; they will receive tickets to
the party and acknowledgements in promotional mater-ials.
The $1,000 Sponsor fee includes eight tickets;
Patrons, for a $500 fee, get six tickets; Contributors, for
$250, receive four tickets. Individual tickets are also
available for $50. The garden party is ANCA’s major
annual fundraising event; all profits benefit the Arne
Nixon Center.
For information call (559) 278-5790 or send e-mail to
kelliew@csufresno.edu.
eo Politi was my friend. I know this because he says so
in the note he wrote on the wrapping of the artwork that
he brought to Fresno for me. Let me explain.
Professor Arne Nixon invited Leo Politi to Fresno to his
literature conferences annually during the 1970s and
1980s. Arne and Leo were a perfect match. They both
loved multi-cultural children’s literature. Nixon taught at
Fresno State. Fresno was Politi’s birthplace in 1908.
Politi would bring artwork to sell at those conferences. I
had long admired his colorful print of “Three Little Girls
in Pink.” The year I asked for this print he didn’t have it
but said that he would bring one the following year. I
thanked him thinking that there was little chance that he
would remember this conversation. I was wrong. The
following year, he arrived with this 21" by 28" print laid
out flat and wrapped in brown paper with a note that read
in typical Politi style:
“These three Japanese girls in pink is an order from last
year and I want to make sure the young lady whom I don’t
remember the name but is a good friend gets them.”
Leo Politi became a beloved Fresno native through
these conferences. There was much support to name a
Fresno library in his honor.
When Alice F. Reilly, Fresno County Librarian, sent a let-ter
to Politi seeking his approval to name a branch library
in his honor, this was his response on January 27, 1974:
“Dear Mrs. Reilly, Please forgive my delay in answering
your letter. I feel so honored and grateful for naming one
of the Fresno Branch Libraries with my name. Needless to
say you are more than welcome to use my name. If there is
a space on the wall and you would like me to make a
picture I will be happy to do it and donate it to the
Library. Thank you again and please give my gratitude and
love to everyone responsible for this honor. Very sincerely.
Leo Politi.”
Politi did “make a picture” for the library. It was a water-color,
4' by 12', of children reading under a tree and others
playing nearby. He brought it to the May 20, 1974,
dedication himself in a trailer towed by a car that he drove
from Los Angeles. He was 67 years old at the time.
This gentle artist has enriched the lives of many people
from Fresno to Los Angeles. I plan to celebrate the
centennial anniversary of my friend who was born
November 21, 1908. You can, too. Celebrations are listed at
www.leopoliti2008centennial.org. 2
Tales & Tidbits
from ANCA
(Arne Nixon Center Advocates)
L
by Denise Sciandra, ANCA President
Welcome, Mila Rianto!
Unpredictable
he Arne Nixon Center welcomes a new Library Assis-tant,
Mila Rianto, who began work in January. Mila joins
Angelica Carpenter and Jennifer Crow as the Center’s
third full-time employee.
Mila was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. She grew up there
reading folk and fairy tales in books borrowed from
school libraries. At age 19 she moved to Fresno, where she
had family. She attended Fresno City College and later UC
San Diego, where she earned a bachelor’s degree with a
double major in cognitive science and international studies.
As a student Mila worked in the Doris Gates Room of
the Fresno County Public Library and later at the UC San
Diego Library. Prior to joining the
Arne Nixon Center, she worked as
an administrative assistant at Pro-fessional
Exchange Services Cor-poration
in Fresno.
Like author Yuyi Morales, Mila
credits her fluent English,
learned mostly in this country, to
“Sesame Street.”
here is no calendar in this issue of The Magic Mirror
as future events are somewhat unpredictable. Some time
in the coming months, by June at the latest, the Arne
Nixon Center (and many other departments) will move
out of the South Wing of the Library, clearing it entirely
so that the building can be remodeled. At press time it
was not clear where staff or books would be housed
during the transition period, which is expected to last
until January 2009. When all is done, the Arne Nixon
Center will move back into the South Wing.
The Center’s phone number will remain the same
through these changes and staff will be available by
e-mail, too. Class visits can be arranged in classrooms, but
not in the Library.
The new Library will include a Leo Politi Garden
designed by landscape architect Bob Boro. ANCA, the
Arne Nixon Center Advocates, raised $75,000 for the con-struction
of this garden, which will be a tribute to Arne
Nixon’s dear friend and Fresno’s most famous children’s
author/illustrator. The garden will be located in the space
between the new building and the South Wing and will be
constructed at the end of the building project and
finished in 2009.
We apologize for the inevitable inconveniences that
will be caused by the coming changes. We hope you’ll join
us in anticipation of greatly improved service in a won-derful
new Arne Nixon Center in the years to come.
T
T
by Angelica Carpenter
CORNER
CURATOR’S
You go, girls!
inda Joy Singleton lives in her dream house, atop
a Sierra foothill east of Stockton. The wrap-around
porch offers a 360-degree view of live oaks and
rolling hills. Her husband built the house himself,
just for her. “I told him that I wanted somewhere for
lots of books and lots of animals,” she said.
Three dogs and a couple of cats got shooed outside when I arrived. Linda
took me upstairs to her airy pink aerie (well, it feels as if you could soar right
out the window), where she writes children’s and young adult novels. In 20
years she has published 32 books.
Her subjects vary. For Cheer Squad she spent four days posing as a coach at
a cheerleader camp. “I did the research for this on the Internet,” she explained.
She ghost wrote #59 of the Sweet Valley Twins series, about a barnyard. “That
was easy,” she said. “I had a barnyard!”
She is philosophical about her work. When the editor of her 20th book
e-mailed, “We’re changing your name and we’re changing the series, and I’ll be
gone for two weeks,” Linda remained calm.
”They always send those kinds of e-mails late Friday afternoon,” she said.
Nothing discourages this hard-working writer, whose red curls bounce when she
talks. She was celebrating the fact that her first hardback would soon be
published: Into the Mirror, a mystery about a foster child who discovers secrets
about her past.
Linda and I met through the Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators. “Come see my collection,” she had urged, and now, proudly, she
showed me her library. On the custom-built shelves were 5,000 girls’ series
books, arranged, mostly, by the names of their heroines. Many series authors use
pseudonyms, Linda explained; often the author changes, but the series
continues. She collects series ephemera, too: games, dolls, t-shirts, jewelry,
perfume, lunch boxes, and tea sets.
“I started with Judy Bolton,” she said. “When I was thirteen, I wrote a fan let-ter
to Margaret Sutton and she wrote back!” Linda treasures this letter, and others
from Sutton, written over the years as Linda grew up and the two became friends.
Linda’s collection grew, too, to include Trixie Beldon, Nancy Drew, Ginny
Gordon, American Girls, Dorothy Dainty, The Babysitters Club, Beverly Gray,
and Patty Fairfield. I collect Patty books, too—different editions from Linda’s. I
was thrilled to find a Patty illustration that I had never seen before.
In 1985 a group of Judy Bolton fans formed the Society of Phantom Friends
and Linda soon joined. Later the organization expanded its scope to cover all
girls’ fiction, with an emphasis on series books. The Phantom Friends meet via
their newsletter, The Whispered Watchword, or online, or in person at sites re-lated
to their favorite books, and they have helped to publish a reference book,
The Girls Series Companion. Their Web site is www.nancydrewsleuth.com.
I am pleased to report that Linda is donating her papers to the
Arne Nixon Center. I left with a car full of boxes, a head full
of new knowledge about girls’ series books, and a heart
full of admiration for this talented author.
The Arne Nixon Center for the
Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
California State University, Fresno
5200 North Barton Ave. M/S ML34
Fresno CA 93740-8014
Phone: (559) 278-8116
Please call for an appointment.
Web site: www.arnenixoncenter.org
Angelica Carpenter, Curator
E-mail: angelica@csufresno.edu
Jennifer Crow, Library Assistant
Mila Rianto, Library Assistant
Matt Borrego, Student Assistant
Maria Carrizales, Student Assistant
David Real, Student Assistant
Angelica Carpenter, Editor
Janet Bancroft, Designer & Co-editor
Peter McDonald
Michael Cart
Maurice J. Eash
MAGICMIRROR
MAGICMIRROR
Published by
Staff
ANCA Board of Directors
ANC Governing Committee
Alma Flor Ada
Steven Mooser
Magic Mirror
Denise Sciandra, President
Phone (559) 229-5085
E-mail: denises@comcast.net
Jessica Kaiser,
1st Vice President, Programs
Jackie Sarkisian,
2nd Vice President, Membership
Audry Hanson,
Corresponding Secretary
Angelica Carpenter,
Recording Secretary
Cynthia MacDonald, Treasurer
Laurel Ashlock
Ruth Kallenberg
Jo Ellen Misakian
Judith Neal
Kristene Scholefield
Ellis Vance
ANC Advisory Committee
L
3 Author Linda Joy Singleton
4
Munchkin Stars (or, A walk on the Walk of Fame)
s president of the International Wizard of Oz Club, I get
invited to some fascinating events. Last November I went
to one of the glitziest; my husband, Richard, and I joined
Oz fans in Hollywood to see the Munchkins get a star on
the Walk of Fame.
The surviving actors who played Munchkins in the
1939 MGM movie “The Wizard of Oz” are now in their 80s
and 90s. Margaret Pellegrini, Jerry Maren, Meinhardt
Raabe, Clarence Swenson, Karl Slover, Mickey Carroll, and
Ruth Duccini have appeared at many Oz events, but none
so exciting or rewarding as this one when, collectively, the
124-member cast of Munchkin Land was awarded a star
on Hollywood Boulevard.
The celebration began November 19th in the lobby of
the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Here the Munchkins were
interviewed for “Entertainment Tonight” and photo-graphed
with VIP guests like Robert Baum, the great-grandson
of Oz author L. Frank Baum; Judy Garland’s son
Joe Luft; and Judy’s Hollywood co-stars, Margaret O’Brien
(“Meet Me in St. Louis”) and Ann Rutherford (the “Andy
Hardy” films).
Soon the party adjourned across Hollywood Boulevard
to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where the movie originally
premiered. The courtyard, famous for its handprints of
the stars, was filled with paparazzi. Searchlights arced
through the night sky and cameras fed live footage over
the worldwide Web. No red carpet for these stars, how-ever;
a custom-made Yellow Brick Road was roped off to
form a grand entrance for the famous little people.
Inside that fabulous theatre, we enjoyed reminiscences
from the actors and Meinhardt’s traditional speech: “As
Coroner, I must aver, I’ve thoroughly examined her…” and
then we settled down to watch a special, restored version
of our favorite
movie, which was
interrupted occa-sionally
by cheers.
The next morning Richard and I went out to breakfast.
When we got back to the hotel parking lot, we were
amazed to find a lavender horse with white plumes on his
head hitched to a flower-bedecked carriage. It was the
“Horse of a Different Color you’ve heard tell about!” Like
the horse in the movie, it had been temporarily dyed with
purple Jell-O. One by one the seven stars arrived, each
with an entourage of family and friends. Three wore
costumes replicating their Munchkin characters. They were
helped, with some difficulty, into the tall carriage.
The marching band from Hollywood High School
stepped into formation and led the way back to
Grauman’s, playing, of course, “We’re Off to See the
Wizard.” A huge crowd cheered and there were more
photographers than before. Then Johnny Grant, the
honorary mayor of Hollywood (who, sadly, has since
passed away) presided over the star ceremony.
Captured by all those news crews, the image of seven
elderly Munchkins soon appeared on front pages and on
television around the world.
Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, we returned to the
Roosevelt for a luncheon that was held in the room where
the first Academy Awards were presented. On this day it
was filled with green glowing tables and an immense
Emerald City backdrop
The Munchkins have introduced countless people to
the Land of Oz. Ted Bulthaup of Hollywood Blvd. Cinema
in Woodland, Illinois, led the effort to reward them
by getting 50,000 fan signatures and
letters of support from people like
Ted Turner, Stephen Spielberg, George
Lucas, Hugh Hefner, and even me!
This star was much appreciated by
the actors and their fans, like me!
A
by Angelica Carpenter
Grauman’s Chinese
Theatre, complete
with paparazzi
Margaret Pellegrini and Angelica Carpenter
(and part of the Horse of a Different Color)
5
Tenth anniversary party The football version of
he Arne Nixon Center celebrated the tenth anniversary “No Child Left Behind”
of its founding on Friday, December 7th, at a Library
party sponsored by ANCA, the Arne Nixon Center
Advocates. After a champagne reception, 75 guests were
welcomed by Library Dean Peter McDonald and
University President John Welty. ANCA President Denise
Sciandra asked other ANCA board members present to
introduce themselves and to tell how they came to be
involved with the Arne Nixon Center.
The program had a Dickensian feel as Denise spoke
about the past, showing historical slides of Arne Nixon
and some of the famous authors and illustrators he hosted
in Fresno; Angelica Carpenter spoke of the present, high-lighting
recent publications based on research done in the
Center and the Center’s special collections; and Marcie
Morrison, the Library’s Director of Development, pictured
the Center’s future, showing slides of the new Library,
inside and out, and mosaics to be included in the Leo
Politi Garden, which ANCA funds will build outside the
new Library.
[This document has been posted widely on the Internet. We
don’t know who wrote it, but whoever it is, we salute you!]
1. All teams must make the state playoffs, and all will win
the championship. If a team does not win the
championship, they will be on probation until they are
the champions, and coaches will be held accountable.
2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills
at the same time. No exceptions will be made for interest
in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic
abilities or disabilities. ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL
AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL.
3. Talented players will be asked to work out on their own
without instruction. This is because the coaches will be
using all their instructional time with the athletes who
aren’t interested in football, or have limited athletic
ability or whose parents don’t like football.
4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only
be kept in the 4th, 8th and 11th games.
5. This will create a New Age of sports where every school
is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams
will reach the same minimal goals. If no child
gets ahead, then no child will be left behind.
T
Above: 10th anniversary party-goers in December. Because wood
is the traditional gift for a tenth anniversary occasion, Pinocchio
was featured on party invitations and in the event program.
Left: Bette Petersen
and Gerry Hughes
Photos by Howard Watkins
Above: ANCA board member
Cynthia MacDonald and the Arne
Right: Library Dean Peter McDonald, Nixon Center’s Jennifer Crow
Director of Library Development Marcie
Morrison, Sandy Stubblefield, and
Fresno State President John Welty
4 A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
3 The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
AAnswers to quiz:
1Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
by Margaret Sidney
2
6
Dr. Kang Hoon Lee was a visiting scholar in the Arne
Nixon Center from September through November, 2007.
n her article “Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?,”
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “It is by such statements as,
‘Once upon a time there was a dragon,’ or ‘In a hole in the
ground there lived a hobbit,’—it is by such beautiful
non-facts that we fantastic human beings may arrive at
the truth.” Back in the 1980s in Korea, in a literature class,
a student asked, “What help is it to study literature when
you are in poverty?” And the answer from the professor
was that you could at least forget hunger by reading
books. Well…my answer now is that love for beauty, art,
and imagination is an innate quality of all human beings
and that Le Guin was absolutely right.
If the pursuit and enjoyment of beauty, art, and imag-ination
are important, regardless of outer reality, then
cultivating such interests in the young is essential, and
even a duty, for teachers and parents. Reading books helps
people develop a healthy state of mind and it serves as a
basis for a healthy society. This is why children’s literature
is important. Who knows if a well-read child in our class
will be a great writer or artist someday? In some cases the
childhood experience of reading affects a person’s whole
intellectual and emotional life.
When I was ten years old, I read Lewis Carroll’s Alice
in Wonderland translated into Korean. Some images and
linguistic expressions in it were so interesting (sometimes so
weird) that they remained vividly in my mind, influenc-ing
my interest in language and literature later on. After I
got a Ph.D. in literature, I started to study the Alice books.
Children’s literature is taken lightly in Korea. There are
not many scholarly studies of the subject, and not many
reference books, of course. I contacted the LCSNA (Lewis
Carroll Society of North America) about studying in
America. They put me in touch with the Arne Nixon
Center, which is famous for the study of children’s
literature and which has a large collection of books on
Lewis Carroll. The Center graciously invited me to study
in Fresno.
When you enter the Center, Koko, the big black gorilla
[a life-sized, stuffed toy gorilla, representing a real
gorilla featured in children’s books], guards the treasure
trove of books and checks to see if you are a children’s
book lover. Then you get a warm-hearted welcome from
the staff. What impressed me most was not only the
collection, but also the staff’s enthusiasm to improve
education about children’s literature. They have meetings,
seminars, and conferences on children’s literature all year
round. These events actually help to guide the way to
children’s imaginations through books. The staff makes
catalogues, offers theoretical guidance, invites authors,
illustrators, and scholars to participate, and provides the
public with helpful information and guidance.
Good hardware is useless without good software to
match. It’s not just the books that make the Arne Nixon
Center so excellent; it is the people running it. They, es-pecially
Curator Angelica Carpenter and Library Assistant
Jennifer Crow, did their best to help me with finding,
reading, and making lists of books, and with other per-sonal
needs, like buying a suitcase to fill with books to
take home with me. Angelica Carpenter, who is a board
member of the LCSNA, gave me important information on
Lewis Carroll and the Alice books and we discussed other
children’s literature topics, too. Her knowledge and
information were invaluable for the book I am preparing.
Back in Korea, reading my books, memories of the
Arne Nixon Center flash upon me. I feel like Wordsworth,
on his couch, enjoying happy memories in his “daffodil”
poem. I think that the best way to repay the staff for their
hospitality is to write a good book and to help others to
understand the true value of children’s literature. When
you visit the Arne Nixon Center, three years from now, I
hope that you will find my contribution to the Center on
a book shelf there. Oh, this reminds me. Do you like cats?
Interested in cat books? Then you must visit the Arne
Nixon Center for its collection of 6,000 cat books. But you
cannot find mouse books on the same shelf with cat books!
Alice in the Arne Nixon Center
by Kang Hoon Lee, Ph.D.
I
Dr. Lee and Koko
Dr. Lee takes ntoes
SIGN ME UP!
I/We would like to join the Arne Nixon Center
Advocates and enclose a donation. (Donations
are tax deductible as allowable by law.)
Make check payable to CSUF Foundation.
Mail to: Angelica Carpenter
California State University, Fresno
Henry Madden Library
The Arne Nixon Center
5200 North Barton Ave. M/S ML34
Fresno CA 93740-8014
Phone: (559) 278-8116
FAX: (559) 278-6952
E-mail: angelica@csufresno.edu
Name (s)
Address
City/State/Zip
Phone
E-mail
(Please circle one) Ms. Mr. Mrs. Mr. & Mrs.
New membership Renewal
1,000 Life membership
Patron membership
Sponsor membership
Advocate membership
Sustaining membership
Student membership
Other amount
500 Benefactor membership
$
$
$ 250
$ 100
$ 50
$ 25
$ 10
$
Margarita Engle wins
Pura Belpré award
ongratulations to Margarita Engle, who recently donated her
papers to the Arne Nixon Center. This Cuban-American author,
who lives nearby in Clovis, has garnered several major awards
for her 2006 book, The Poet Slave of Cuba. She traveled to
Toronto to accept the International Reading Association’s
Children’s Book Award for non-fiction for young adults, to
New York when the National Council of Teachers of English
proclaimed her book a Notable Book in the Language Arts, and
to Washington, D.C., to accept the Américas Award given by
the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs,
coordinated by the University of Wisconsin and the Hispanic
section of the Library of Congress.
The Américas Award is given to both the author and the
illustrator. It was at the Library of Congress where Margarita
first met her illustrator, Sean Qualls. Like her, he is a rising star
in children’s literature. Sean gave a piece of original art from
the book to the Center and Margarita bought and donated two
additional illustrations.
Margarita was at home with her family on the evening of
Sunday, January 13, 2008, when the telephone rang. It was the
Pura Belpré Committee of the American Library Association,
calling to tell her that she had won the Pura Belpré Award.
This goes to a Latino/Latina writer whose work best portrays,
affirms, and celebrates the Latino Cultural Experience in an
outstanding work of literature for children and youth. It is
presented every two years (Margarita had forgotten this, and
had thought that awards for 2006 books were all over), so her
2006 book won one more big prize in 2008.
”I cried, of course,” she said. “I could hear the whole com-mittee
there, on the speaker phone. They were all yelling
‘Congratulations!’”
Her next book, The Surrender Tree, to be published in
April, was discovered in Margarita’s work as a botanist. It tells
the story of Rosa la Bayamesa, a Cuban woman born in slavery
and freed during Cuba’s first
war with Spain, in 1868. At
that time planters freed their
slaves so that planters and
slaves could fight the Spanish
together. Rosa la Bayamesa be-came
a nurse, healing fighters
from both sides with native
plants and hiding them in
tropical jungles and caves.
C
7
Margarita Engle and the book cover
artwork she’s donating to the Arne Nixon Center
photo by
Marshall W. Johnson
California State University, Fresno
The Arne Nixon Center for
the Study of Children’s Literature
Henry Madden Library
5200 North Barton Avenue M/S ML34
Fresno CA 93740-8014
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Non-Profit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
Fresno, California
Permit No. 262
Can you identify book titles from these first lines?
(Answers on page 5)
Q1Here we go again. We were all standing in line waiting for breakfast when
one of the caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tapped down the line. Uh-oh,
this meant bad news, either they’d found a foster home for somebody or
somebody was about to get paddled.
Q2The little old kitchen had quieted down from the bustle and
confusion of midday; and now, with its afternoon manners on,
presented a holiday aspect that, as the principal room in the
brown house, it was eminently proper it should have.
Q4It was always August when we spent a week with our grandma.
I was Joey then, not Joe: Joey Dowdel, and my sister was Mary Alice.
Q3The story I am about to share with you takes place in 1931, under the roofs of Paris.
