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Today, I was shelving picture books and a little girl - maybe four or five, not reading yet - was sitting at a nearby table. She and her father and older sister had come in to get books of a scary stories for the camping trip they're about to take, and had ended up with (of course) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. And, as all right-thinking people are, this little girl was wholly entranced by the terrifying illustrations.
Her family had wandered away but I was right there, so she was showing me all of the pictures she especially liked and asking me questions about the story titles. I love when little kids are enthusiastic at me about books, and I love Stephen Gammell's illustrations, so I was happy to chat with her. She had just finished asking me about one of the songs in the book (which I couldn't sing for her, as I didn't know the tune) when she looked straight at me and asked the single greatest question I have ever been asked at the library by someone under 10:
"Have you ever seen a dead body?"
Isn't that the best thing ever? I told her that I had once attended my grandmother's funeral. "But what did she look like?" "Well, she looked like my grandmother. In a coffin." "Did you open it up?" "The undertaker opened it. He asked me if I wanted to see her feet.*" "Oh."
I feel like we succeeded in mutually surprising and confusing each other, so it was a productive conversation. And that is the best thing that happened to me today.
*True story. Actually, it was one of the nicest things that anyone did for me during the whole funeral process. We were at the funeral home and I was quite sad and a little freaked out looking at my Nana in her coffin and the undertaker/funeral director was being very kind about everything and suddenly he said (and you have to imagine the thick, south Georgia accent for the full effect) "Wanta see her feet?" It made me laugh and it stopped me freaking out and I'll never forget it. It's now become a sort of family joke.
Her family had wandered away but I was right there, so she was showing me all of the pictures she especially liked and asking me questions about the story titles. I love when little kids are enthusiastic at me about books, and I love Stephen Gammell's illustrations, so I was happy to chat with her. She had just finished asking me about one of the songs in the book (which I couldn't sing for her, as I didn't know the tune) when she looked straight at me and asked the single greatest question I have ever been asked at the library by someone under 10:
"Have you ever seen a dead body?"
Isn't that the best thing ever? I told her that I had once attended my grandmother's funeral. "But what did she look like?" "Well, she looked like my grandmother. In a coffin." "Did you open it up?" "The undertaker opened it. He asked me if I wanted to see her feet.*" "Oh."
I feel like we succeeded in mutually surprising and confusing each other, so it was a productive conversation. And that is the best thing that happened to me today.
*True story. Actually, it was one of the nicest things that anyone did for me during the whole funeral process. We were at the funeral home and I was quite sad and a little freaked out looking at my Nana in her coffin and the undertaker/funeral director was being very kind about everything and suddenly he said (and you have to imagine the thick, south Georgia accent for the full effect) "Wanta see her feet?" It made me laugh and it stopped me freaking out and I'll never forget it. It's now become a sort of family joke.