Things We've Lost in the Twilight Zone

Isn't it funny how memory works? Yesterday it was so warm, the girls and I went out to the front yard. On the porch was a huge splat of white goop. It looked like paint. But how could white paint have ended up on our front porch?

I think it had to be bird poop. Don't worry, I told the girls not to touch it.

I mentioned it to Noah, as we were dozing off in bed and my mind was in that soft, malleable state where thoughts and memories and ideas drift in and out and you jot something down--some sentence or title or idea--and wake up in the morning and read it.

And think, what was I thinking?

Anyway, he said he thought it was poop too. Which led me to mention how I almost--ALMOST--got pooped on in New York. Which led Noah to mention how he did get pooped on in high school. Which led me to mention that so did I.

Which made me remember this:



Starring Sally J. Freedman, As Herself.

How could I have forgotten?

Judy Blume was one of the most important writers for me, growing up. I read this one when I was in about 4th grade, I think. I read alot of her other ones too. Freckle Juice, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Otherwise Known As Sheila the Great, Superfudge, and of course, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Judy Blume has drawn some heat because she never talks down to her readers. She writes for children, but she doesn't try to protect them from truths about their own lives. I don't remember ever being shocked or disturbed by anything in Blume's books. I just remember I loved them.

Sally J Freedman is about a little girl living in America after WWII. Sally had cousins that died in the Holocaust. She dreams about them often.

She is given to spinning off flights of incredible fancy (that's why I loved her).

In one, she meets Hitler. She bravely refuses to succumb to him as he badgers her for answers. The tone here is fantastical and fanciful. It's not dark to you, as a child. Looking back as an adult, it sort of is.

Sally is sent down to Miami beach to spend the summer with her buhbeh (sounds like babi, if you're Czech)while her older brother recovers from an infection.

Sally is convinced her neighbor is Hitler in disguise.

Sally J Freedman gets pooped on. Bubeh says it is good luck.

Sally is in love with Peter Hornstien. With a name like that, you know he is gorgeous.

Honestly, that's about all I remember. I have a hankering to re-read it now, but I haven't read it since I was about 9 (I looked up the boys name. No, I did not just recall it). But I know I loved it back then. I loved all things Judy Blume.

If you haven't read her yet, you might want to get around to it.

More Things We've Lost in the Twilight Zone books to come.

What were some of your favorite books as a child or teen?