My second oldest daughter,

My second oldest daughter, A, found her true love last year: Roald Dahl. She has
checked every book the library has, purchased every one that the bookstore
sells, and borrowed every one that anyone else owns. My curricula of reading
books is formulatic: A.A. Milne, Francis Hodgson Burnett, Kenneth Grahame,
Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I love the classics
and wanted to pass on that love to my daughters. After I complete that
repertoire, they then seem to have developed their own taste and set off on
adventures of their own choosing. E prefers fantasy. She was first introduced to
the genre when she was sick and I put in an audio A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine
L'Engle. She was entranced. That started her fascination with all things
possible. A loves animals. She desires to be a DVM when she grows up. I recall
her spending hours outside with our dog. She was fair skinned and blonde; a
little sprite in the grasses. Her affair with the four legged influenced her
preference in literature. She found enthrallment by reading Jack London and Avi.
Last year, E gave to A one of her personal favorites, Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory. It was a timid start. She enjoyed it, but found her attraction grow
stronger with George's Marvelous Medicine. She has never been repulsed by, shall
we say, bodily function humor. Mr. Dahl has such a creative way of putting it
all so that one must stop and think about what he is actually meaning ("George's
grandmother had a mouth like a dogs bottom" or "He sounds like a brass band
after dinner"). While visiting my dear friend in Missouri, we met at the local
Barnes and Noble for coffee, chatting, and browsing. The children played and
looked at books. We then began pointing out our favorites to one another. During
a search for more Roald, my fingers touched the spine of one I had never heard
of before, The Vicar of Nibbleswicke. As my friend's husband is a PCA pastor (a
very good one, I might add), I began to read the small book. My laughter caused
more than one person to look my direction. Between gasps, I read what was so
funny to my friend. We both purchased it for our children. He does at times
boarder on the delightfully disgusting, as we all had the privilege of hearing
on our trip across continent last summer. The Twits was our audio of choice and
I thought that I would lose my lunch several times during the ride. A bought
herself Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes with a Christmas gift certificate paid
for by her younger sister at our locally owned bookstore. She intends to sharpen
her cooking skills with some of the interesting culinary finds in it. I am so
pleased that she has found a place for her mind to wander so freely and with
such hilarity.