I don’t really enjoy Valentine’s day very much. Too much hype & candy at elementary school. Too much commercialism. I guess I’m just getting old & jaded.
On a side note, I have an acquaintance who has been married for 27 years, I believe. Since their first Valentine’s Day, she & her husband have made Valentines for each other. I wish you could hear her tell it because they have become more & more elaborate over the years. They sort of restore my faith in the whole thing.
A beautiful gem of a picture book came out in 2012, Oliver by Birgitta Sif.
Here is the opening two-page spread. The text throughout the book is simple. Here, it simply says, “Oliver felt a bit different.”
You have to search bit to see that Oliver is the boy in the bus window, with only his toy dragon for company. The book goes on to show that he loved books and considered the books, puppets and toys, his friends. One day, however, something happens that sends Oliver and company out beyond his comfort zone. In the end he meets Olivia, who is also a little bit different. The end of the book shows the two of them, performing a puppet play for toys. The words “The End” are crossed out and replace by “The Beginning”. And, As Rick says to Louis at the end of Casablanca,
booksandbassets 