The Vegas Valley Book Festival was fun! A lot of people came out. We represented the HWA, sold a few books, and I drank a LOT of Diet Pepsi. But my favorite part?
Once upon a time, when Niko was a little boy, we were on the dialysis floor. He wasn’t having dialysis himself, but received a pamidronate treatment to help his calcium levels go down. While we were there, I found the most charming, hilarious book on the waiting room table. It was Walter Dean Meyers’ The Dragon Takes a Wife.
It is one of the best children’s book I’ve ever read. Clever. Original. The fairy, Mabel Mae, has a beautiful afro and uses 1970’s jive talk. I loved it so much.
I wanted to steal it from the Seattle Children’s Hospital, but, alas. I thought that would be in poor form. It’s out of print, but I tracked it down and bought an old copy from a library.
Walter Dean Meyers was reading at the festival, and I sneaked in to listen. Fantastic. I had brought my ragged, shredded, tattered copy of The Dragon Takes a Wife, and my friend X asked Meyers to sign it for me. I was all giggly.
That was my favorite part of the entire festival.
Do you have a children’s book that means something special to you? Can you tell me about it?
5 Comments on “The Dragon Takes a Wife”
I love Tiki Tiki Tembo, the Dick and Jane books amongst others. I have lots of fond memories of reading as a child.
I have at least three but I can’t remember the exact name of the third and I read it every Christmas. This is Our Town, it is a 3rd grade reader that was used in Catholic schools back in the old days, Shirley Temple’s Book of FairyTales…I read that book until it was falling apart and yet I still have it here somewhere and then a Christmas book with several Christmas short stories and poems in it from like 1965. I totally love that book. I have read these books more times than I can count.
I am glad you were able to get an autograph of your book Mercedes. That is great!
Ardee-ann
Isn’t it funny how these stories stay with us? There’s this story I read as a child, about a boy who loses his eyes. I was telling that to somebody the other day. I read that a zillion years ago.
Thanks for your comments, you two! 😀
Can’t remember which title I had, but it was by this guy http://www.bertramstories.com/biography.html and was a red hardcover passed down from my grandmother that passed away when I was in 4th grade in ’84 and was in her things that she had in storage since my dad got to old for it.
Actually found it on amazon, for $150. This is it I remember the cover and the reviews jogged my memory. http://www.amazon.com/Bertram-Fabulous-Animals-Paul-Gilbert/dp/B000MZURDI