like a child...

When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does. [you've got mail]

It's never a good idea to live in the past, but sometimes it's awfully nice to visit for an afternoon. I had goldfish crackers for lunch.

This is my last summer. What I mean is, these six weeks have been my last chance to have all the things that the word "summer" means: time off from school, no serious responsibilities, reading in the sunshine by the pool on a weekday, eating snowcones, making sidewalk chalk roadsigns, and catching fireflies at night. Next summer, I will be a Bachelor of Arts College Graduate. Next summer, I will be in a different type of season, one that is wide open and exciting and completely new. Summer will never again mean what it means to me today. I don't really mind. I'm as excited for the future as I am about the present.

I've learned a lot about childhood this summer. Living in a house with five amazing kids under age twelve has brought out a lot of thinking about my own former life and the way I relate to that Emily. Because of who she was, what she read, who she played with, what she thought, I am the Emily I am today, the Emily who turns twenty-two in a month, has a credit card, and decides when she goes to bed.

This afternoon, I spent hours in the children's section of the tiny Tyrone, Georgia library. It reminded me of Emily's Runaway Imagination and the excitement of something we take for granted in our beautiful modern cities. I pulled out all the titles and authors I remember getting as a kid, so I can share them with my Mount friends. They already know most of them, which is really exciting to me. I like sharing my favorite literature, even if it is with a six year old.

I like reading books that changed the world, but it's also been really amazing to reread some of the authors that changed my childhood world: Steven Kellog, Maud Hart Lovelace, James Stevenson, William Stieg, Gertrude Chandler Warner, Beverly Cleary...

It always delights me that I live next to Klickitat Street, across the river from the Beverly Clearly Children's Room at the Central Library, north of the little town where she grew up, and west of the Ramona and Ribsy statues in Grant Park. Someday, I want to read her books to my children, to shape their imaginations and tell them about my childhood: playing outside until the streetlights came on, walking to the library, family reading every night, and my last real summer, chasing fireflies and kids in Georgia.

Go read a book, before you're too grown up.