What was your favorite toy as a child?

I remember my first published poem, written in high school.

I love to sit and dream of days long past,
Of a chubby, brown-haired girl
Dressed in checks and stripes, a feather-
plumed hat on her head–
Sitting in her little doll room
Eating a pound of potato chips
–laughing–

Published in Parnassus in Print (1971) and The Discerning Poet (2004). Reprinted here on December 27, 2009.

As I thought of the prompt for today, one memory led to another. I often write about the language arts. I remember libraries and also the wonder of owning a few books. Still a wonder. Crayons and crafts, learning to cook, and working at a bakery in high school. In college, at UW-Madison, I worked at a Pizza Hut as a cook and waitress.

A few years ago, I read Becoming Madeleine: a biography of the author of A Wrinkle In Time by her Granddaughters Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Lena Roy (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers. Copyright 2018 by Crosswicks, Ltd.). You can learn about the book here. It is a unique work, and the design is beautiful. I think I will reread a little today.

Two Pages from the official Madeleine L’Engle site are Home and About Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007).

A photo collage: