Til Death Do Us Part: Childhood Books

When I was younger, I believed that I would grow up to be a veterinarian, own hundreds of birds and live on a farm picking blueberries and making blueberry pies and that I will be in a monogamous relationship with a man and we would grow old together and I would teach my secret blueberry pie recipe to my grandchildren. I believed this because of a certain picture book that I grew attached to when I was rather young.

I remember sitting in a waiting room, in anticipation of being called up by a specialist for some medical reason that I cannot recall. I can recall though that I was terribly bored and that despite being quite young, I was beyond the brain capacity of being entertained by alphabet blocks so I sought after the pile of books stacked neatly in front of me. After carefully looking through the pile, one book alone appealed to me, and I read it for the entire waiting period. It was about a grandmother whose grandchildren came over to her farm and would pick blueberries - she then would proceed to make blueberry pie and all three would consume it along with their grandpa. I made the story seem shallow but it is a lot more enjoyable than my vague description allows.

Another book that I vividly remember from my childhood was one about a unicorn. I was obsessed with horses and unicorns at the age of around seven, and it would only make sense to be obsessed with a unicorn book. I ordered it from Scholastic Book Club, and it came with a fabulous little necklace with a unicorn charm or pendant. It related to the storyline in that a little girl had a little unicorn, and when I say little I mean one the size of the charm on the necklace, and it would grow and take her on adventures - or so I recall. I just spent three entire hours googling all the possible titles and looking through all the possible images to spark my memory. I remember that it had a pink cover, and it was illustrated in a mildly sketchy manner. It also had sketches of this little unicorn throughout the book inside. All I could find related to my desperate search was another person desperately searching:

None of the suggested book titles in the above screenshot, though, are of the book that I am seeking. I used to take this book everywhere. I remember it always being on the dashboard of our family car because it was a priority passenger. I wore the necklace continuously too. I am not one to throw things away, that is my mother's job and unfortunately these two aspects of my childhood were part of this throwing away.

I would do anything to get a hold of these childhood classics. These books are meant to stay with me so that I can pass them on and watch the reactions of others when they too feel a connection with these books. It shatters me that I cannot find it. All I know is that it is possibly from the 2001 or 2002 edition of Scholastic Book Club. I have contacted them via email to see if they - hopefully - have archived copies of past catalogues. I highly doubt that they do, or if they do, it will most likely cost me - I do not mind paying whatever amount just to get a hold of these books. 

Another book that I distinctly remember was a large hardcopy edition of Black Beauty. It smelt of old books and had amazing illustrations within it and I borrowed it from my school library when I was in Year 3. I was in complete, utter awe. I did not want to return it. The illustrations were absolutely remarkable, I could not fathom how well the illustrator drew. My mother saw my obsession with it and tried to purchase it off my librarian - my librarian refused my mother's generous offer and I had to unwillingly give it back. Each lunchtime I would go back to the library and gaze at its wondrous illustrations, lusting for the book to be in my permanent possession. It never had the chance to.

Childhood books are imperative; I still remember the ones which resonated something within me to this day. It has been fifteen years since I have held any of these three books but I still remember them better than I remember what I ate this morning. They are part of my linguistic history and I wish to have them in my life again partly because they mean a lot to me and because they contributed to my linguistic and artistic flares that have had me succeed academically thus far. 

If only we had books vows. I, Nicole Haddad, take these incredibly wondrous and inspirational childhood books to be my lawfully owned resources, til death do us part; when and if I ever find them again.