A Bad Case of Stripes

I was cleaning out my room the other day when I stumbled upon perhaps the best piece of children literature: A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon. If you've never read it, I recommend you go to the library right now and get the first copy you can (and if there aren't any to take out, put your name on the waiting list. It's that good.)

Seeing and rereading this book got me thinking. This was my childhood. I remember listening to my mom use her huskiest voice for Dr. Bumbles. And now, skimming through the faded pages, I still recall begging her to read it "just one more time." I loved this book and all the memories that came with it.

It gave me the biggest sense of nostalgia, and I began to wonder what in ten years will give teenagers this same feeling. For me, seeing VCRs and Kid Pix and Carmen Sandiego and Tamagotchi bring back everything I loved about elementary school. Will it be 3D glasses and the iPad and WALL-E and eBooks for the next generation?

I hope A Bad Case of Stripes makes it. Because if it doesn't, then no one else will feel the same joy of finding it again tucked away in a bookshelf. No one else will laugh at her mother's husky voice. And no one else will beg to have it read just one more time. I don't want my story to be forgotten because it's almost like a piece of me being forgotten too.

Not everything lasts; reading the word "Tamagotchi" probably made you go, "Oh my gosh! I forgot about those!!" But things like A Bad Case of Stripes and Book-fair handouts and Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers need to last because they are what make you remember your childhood.

Peace,
Adlai