Friday, July 22, 2011

A little bookstore laugh

My days as a bookseller are often filled with pricing and listing books. As part of that task, I skim through each book to pick out the publication information and check the overall condition. One of these days I hope to pick up vintage children's books that haven't been colored on or in — I'm constantly finding illustrations that have been embellished with crayon. (Not that I ever did that. Oh, no! I think I used Daddy's ballpoint pen.) But this one made me laugh.

Maybe 50 years ago, some little girl not only read The Bobbsey Twins (1950 edition), but decided it needed editing. In both pink and regular pencil cursive, she crossed out chapter headings and wrote new ones, added a few derogatory comments about certain classmates, and added a few illustrations above chapter headings. Then she filled up the endpapers with a promo letter encouraging the reader to buy the next book...signed, "The Editors."

So, "Tando," did you grow up to be an editor or a writer?

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