Suddenly, SQUAWK! THUMP!

Hey, thanks for your opinions! (Except you, Jeff. Except you.) In the end, b, e, and c won (in that order), so I went ahead and sent in the photos. You can see the album here. The 20 semi-finalists in Micah's age bracket will be selected sometime around July 14th, but since there are currently 55,595 entries, with 33 days left to enter, let's just say I'm not getting my hopes up. ;-)

In other news, I've kind of been on a nostalgic kick lately, and as a result have been looking up books I loved when I was little (The Ordinary Princess, The Castle in the Attic, The Indian in the Cupboard, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and several baby books). There's one picture book my grandmother used to read to us about a witch and a house with red-checkered curtains and blueberry pancakes. The storyline had been more or less lost to time, although I remembered those few details, and I'd actually forgotten the title until blessed Yahoo dredged it up for me. Old Black Witch! by Wende and Harry Devlin was my favorite, the most requested book on her shelf (besides the one about ballet), and I wanted to get a copy for Micah. And wow, did you know that a new, shiny copy of that book will run you $175? I think perhaps I'll stick with a nice, used copy, THANKS. And that'll still put you out $20 or so. Apparently I'm not the only one who loves that book.

Suddenly, SQUAWK! THUMP! And down from the chimney fell a big, black mess. It was covered with cobwebs and made terrible sounds. It stumbled out of the fireplace into the room. From its long, pointed hat to its long, pointed shoes, it was covered with ashes. It was a fright. It was furious. And it was an old black witch.

I know Micah's just a bit young now, but I'm trying to grab up all the good books before they vanish. I'm hoping and betting he'll have the same love of reading as I do, and while I'm sure he'll find his own favorites, I want to have a few things sitting around for him to stumble across. Also, it gives me the chance to go back and read-read them myself. WIN!

(Ooooh! Ooooh! I just found another one - Miss Suzy. I remember that book!)