The shadows across the road were long and interspersed with bright spots of sunshine as I drove home along Sandridge Road from Ilwaco this evening.  I was driving the speed limit (I love cruise control) but, even so, I tried to keep a sharp eye out for deer or other forest friends who might decide to cross the road.

“Watch out for the Hrududus!” I called out — to myself, of course, because, worried though I might be, I didn’t see a single deer person along my way.  “I wonder if it’s only rabbits who call motorized vehicles ‘Hrududus,’ and wished Richard Adams was still around to ask.  Or maybe he mentioned something about that in Watership Down,” I thought.  “I wonder if I still have my old copy.”

And then, of course,  I wondered why I had forgotten to include that most wonderful of all animal stories in my review of children’s books yesterday.  I’ve read it at least twice and I’m thinking it’s time to take another look!  Especially since the rabbits of Surfside have diminished in numbers lately but there have been quite a few sightings here in Oysterville — or so I’m told.

Watership Down, Richard Adams’ first novel, tells the story of a group of rabbits as they make their escape from their warren which is being destroyed and seek a place to establish a new home.  (Surfside to Oysterville?  Maybe, although I haven’t heard anything at all about a warren being discovered. much less one being destroyed.)

In fact, my memory of the book is foggy at best — the leader, a buck with the improbable name of Hazel; violence by humans and other animals, including rabbits; both loyalty and betrayal among friends and the incredible grit and gumption of even the smallest…

Please consider this a P.S. to yesterday’s blog!

City Lights Books, San Francisco

I ran across yet another one of those internet sites listing 30 classics every American should read and scrolled through it to see how many — or IF any — I have read.  Two more than half — 17 of the 30 with another half dozen than I’m not actually sure about.  Did I read On The Road by Jack Kerouac or did I just hear him talk about it along with other “beats” at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco’s North Beach so much that I think I read it? Ditto Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice but earlier in some High School English Lit class?

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the titles of 100 “Classic Children’s Books” and scored 61.  Perhaps a bit better percentage, but I remember many of the ones I did not read — not as a child, not as a mother, and not as a primary grade teacher.  Everyone Poops I don’t remember at all.  But all-in-all, I think I have read and been influenced by more “children’s books” than by any of the adult must-read classics that are so touted.  Perhaps it’s a case of arrested development?

But where was Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey or The Hole Book by Peter Newell (Published in 1908 and 1936 with a rea. hole through covers and pages caused by a gun and was the first anti-gun book I ever remember… but presented in such an interesting and engaging way.  And what about Girl of the Limberlost by naturalist Gene Stratton Porter — on the banned book list back in the 70s as I recall but why??  Or how about The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown — a book to make even the youngest of us think about our priorities!

I was happy to see that The Diary of Anne Frank and To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee were on both the adults’ and children’s lists.  The latter is one I’ve given to graduating high school seniors on occasion, although I think these days it could be read and appreciated by much younger students.

And for children of all ages (and adults, too) who live on this Peninsula — especially at the north end — read aloud Patricia Beatty’s wonderful historical novels about the Kimball Family who lived in Ocean Park in the 1880s.  Begin with The Nickel Plated Beauty and, if you can, describe a wood cook stove or show them a kerosene lamp at the museum or a picture of the long, woolen  underwear kids were sewn into when winter came — you will all have the best appreciation of our local history you can imagine!  Happy reading!