And So It Goes

Robert McCloskey, 88, of 'Make Way for Ducklings,' Dies.
Robert McCloskey's classic children's books captivated generations of young readers and their parents. By Eleanor Blau. [New York Times: Books]

At the risk of sounding offensive, I didn't even realize he was still alive.

As a kid, I enjoyed his books, not Make Way for Ducklings (wow, it's still in print!) particularly, but rather his tales of small-town life in Centerburg, Ohio, featuring a kid named Homer Price.

As a military brat, I didn't have a hometown, and books like Homer Price and Centerburg Tales were a window into an experience could never have; namely, growing up in one place with your family and friends. Yes, very idealized, and probably far more eventful than people's real childhoods (how often do people meet doughnut machines run amok?), but it's an ideal I've held in my imagination my entire life. It's funny how kids will read books to transport them to exotic faraway places and situations, and for me, that was small-town America.

When people ask me, I tell them I'm from Berkeley, California--which is, I suppose, not entirely accurate, since it's really an adult reinvention of my past (it's not even where I went to high school, fer cryin' out loud!), but it's all I have to fall back upon.

Links of the Day

Some other childhood favorites, dredged up from my memory and a search on Amazon, include:

The Henry Reed books from the early 1960s, written by Keith Robertson and illustrated by McCloskey, tell of a young boy, the son of a US diplomat stationed overseas (you can see why I connected with him), spending the summers with his uncle's family in rural Grovers Corner, New Jersey. Henry keeps a journal (not a diary--"Diaries are kept by girls and tell all about their dates and what they thnk of their different boyfriends," says Henry Reed in the first book, Henry Reed, Inc.)) with hilariously deadpan descriptions of his adventures and misadventures (along with next-door neighbor Midge). Further adventures include Henry Reed's Journey, Henry Reed's Babysitting Service, and Henry Reed's Big Show.
I was a little know-it-all as a kid, so naturally I was a big fan of Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective, by Donald J. Sobel. Fighting crime and solving mysteries! Just what I wanted to do! And yes, in middle school my nickname was "The Walking Encyclopedia."
an even-more involved detective fantasy life was provided by Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in books like The Mystery of the Screaming Clock by Robert Arthur, featuring three boy detectives (Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews), working out of a secret hideout hidden in a junkyard (cool!), riding around Los Angeles in a chaffeured Rolls Royce--whose service they won in a contest--(double cool!), and consulting with famed movie director Alfred Hitchcock (way cool!) as they solve baffling mysteries.
Sadly out of print are the 1930s-1040s adventure novels of Howard Pease, featuring a merchant marine named Todd Moran. I vividly remember The Black Tanker, set on the eve of America's involvement in World War II, subtitled "The Adventures of a Landlubber on the Ill-fated Last Voyage of the Oil Tank Steamer Zambora."