What to Give?

The Phoenix on Bowen Cat | Canon 40D| 50mm 1.4

Give a book! CWILL BC authors and illustrators make it a bit easier with themed book pairings over at the CWILL BC blog. The wonderful idea was borrowed from MotherReader and given a British Columbian twist.

I was visiting Phoenix, the bookstore (and more) on Bowen Island, when I came across a bunch of books I remember from when I was a kid. I just had to buy them. I’m not sure how to adequately express this, but reading them today, as an adult, I realised that I was enjoying them on two levels – for how my adult mind appreciated the writing and the illustrations and for the way my child mind suddenly swam to the surface when I saw something familiar from a long time ago. I loved these books in a totally different way when I was a kid, unhampered by the 31 years of experience that influence me today. Seeing them again today I got back a bit of what was wonderful about childhood. Not only did I recall the book, I remembered where I was when the book was read to me – details about the house we lived in at the time. I remembered what I felt about the book, how my parents read it to me, what my favourite pages were, what pages my brother liked best and what it was like to be able to finally read it to myself. It seems that I’m getting all sentimental and nostalgic in my adult age.

….