It’s strange sometimes the books that Tesfa attaches herself to. There are the obvious ones, the Robert Munsch’s and the Dr. Seuss’s and the Margaret and H.A. Rey’s, but then there are the lesser known books. One of Tesfa’s all-time favourite books is Doggie in the Window, which is a book I randomly picked up at an Ottawa Public Library used book sale. It goes in and out of favour a bit, but if ever stumped for what to read Tesfa, I can pick this one off the shelf and she never objects.
There were three lesser known books I remember vividly from my childhood: Henri and the Loup Garou, Fabulous Animal Facts That Hardly Anyone Knows, and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb, the last of which is the only one still in print. We have copies of all three. Henri and the Loup Garou I bought from alibris when Tesfa was small, Fabulous Animal Facts I still have my copy from when I was little, and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb my mother bought for Tesfa when Tesfa was a few weeks old. Of the three, Tesfa has really only taken to Fabulous Animal Facts.
Why some books and not others? I wish I knew. I think if I could figure out what about these books stuck with me, it would tell me something about my brain. I’m always interested in memory, the malleability of it, the fallibility of it. I’m reading Proust right now. Maybe that will help.