Dear Kid,

If you happened to have been alive in 1914 (you weren’t), and if you found yourself in Hamilton, Ohio, and if you happened to be paying attention, you might have noticed that there was a new baby. His name was Robert McCloskey and he grew up to write Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal.

Quick! Name the ducklings.

“But wait,” I hear you say, “If he’s from Hamilton, what was he doing writing about ducks in Boston?”

Most excellent question. He went to art school there. And it’s where he met the Mallards. Interestingly, he bought some ducks to study before he illustrated the book.

“OK,” I hear you continue, “But then what about the other books he wrote? Blueberries for Sal is set in Maine! After all, there aren’t that many bears or blueberry hills in Boston!”

So true.

Robert spent much of his life living in Maine.

And we will always be grateful for his stories.

Love, Mom

P.S. The ducklings are Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack. But you knew that.

Dear Kid,

Today is Book Lovers Day.

Um, why?

There are some things that just seem too obvious to talk about.

I mean, we don’t have a National Take a Breath Day (do we? I don’t think we do). We don’t have a National Blink Your Eyes Every Now and Then Day. We don’t have Love Your Pancreas Day. We just do those things.

So why do we need Book Lovers Day?

In my not so humble opinion, EVERY day should be a book-infused day. Everybody should take time to read on a regular basis. And not just texts (I know people read those on a regular basis. But “C U L8R” is not the same as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” or “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” (Penalty points if you can’t identify both of those.)

It’s a little different when you’re in college; I get that. You spend a LOT of time (I hope) reading for classes, doing homework, and studying.

Hopefully when you have a break (summer, winter, etc.) you’ll occasionally pick up a book and read it.

Or, maybe since you haven’t started classes yet, you’ll take a moment or two today to celebrate.

Enjoy.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

Grandma is in the hospital for a few days. Knowing her, this is not easy since they expect you to rest and relax and follow their rules when you’re in the hospital.

Grandma is not known for resting and relaxing on someone else’s schedule.

So being the kind of kid I am, I turned to My Friend the Internet for ideas on how to entertain oneself when one is supposed to be Taking It Easy rather than scaling mountains.

And MFTI let me down. In a big way.

Oh, there were ideas. They were just 17 kinds of awful. Maybe 18.

So I turned to The People of Facebook for ideas, and TPoF did not let me down. (Thank you FB friends!)

In no particular order, here are

• Books, audio books, Kindle books
• Movies
• Knitting
• Adult coloring books (‘Adult’ as in ‘for grown ups’ not as in ‘XXX’)
• Sudoku and crosswords
• Magazines
• Play soothing spa music in your room so the nurses hang out there
• Organize photos for albums (which sounds like work to me)
• Investigate the family tree through Ancestry.com

Nobody mentioned “Talk to the nurses about your grandchildren” or “Tell the medical staff about DearKidLoveMom.com”; clearly an oversight.

Of all the great suggestions, my all-time fave was (wait for it): Bring her some scrap metal and an arc welder. (Yep, I am still giggling too.)

Mostly, I hope she’ll relax, rest, recover, and head home soon. Those would be good things to add to a hospital to-do list.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

I’ve been talking about libraries the last few days (Part I and Part II). It’s amazing I’ve had the attention span—squirrel!—but I’ve given this a lot of thought.

I love books. This is not news to you, I know. But I have always loved books. Mostly fiction. Mostly amusing fiction, although I have cried over my fair share of sad stories too. Books are escape, they are magic (with or without wizards), they are a way to try on other people’s lives, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

It is impossible for me to imagine a world without books since I consider them an accessory almost as important as a great pair of shoes and sparkly earrings.

The time between books is a weird time. On the one hand, it’s freeing in that for a short time I don’t have to obsessively stay up until two in the morning frantically reading to find out what happens next. On the other hand, I feel a little adrift not having a book (or two or three) in progress. On the third hand (I like science fiction too), it is a wonderful feeling knowing I get to choose something from all the books in the library.

Libraries do not only offer printed material these days. There are audio books (love!), music, movies, tv show…the list goes on. It is wonderful that all sorts of electronic media are there for the borrowing.

But as more and more people use e-readers, I worry that books may disappear. It is horrifying to think that at some point in the not too distant future children might not go to a physical library. Or even if they do that there will be only three books on display for historical significance.

Reading a book is a wonderful tactile experience that just isn’t the same as an iPad.

Then again, I wonder what people said when scrolls first replaced clay: It’s terrible! The parchment will tear, if you don’t have to work as hard to write people won’t take it seriously!

And then when books replaced scrolls: It’s terrible! Books will take up too much space, who can even afford books, all that page turning will cause carpal page-turning syndrome!

And when the first audio books appeared: It’s terrible! Books are meant to be read, not listened to, people will forget how to read!

Happily, books are still here, audio books are still here, movies are here…there’s room for all of it.

Visit a library, Kid. There’s whole world there.

Love, Mom