Books

So we spent a bit of time at a local thrift shop called Serenity House, where we found a few great books.  The first was
Matilda, Who Told Such Dreadful Lies...

Written by Hilaire Belloc and illustrated by Posy Simmonds.

The plot of the book is a sort of "boy who cried wolf" scenario, with Matilda telling awful lies and then.....well, here's the title of the ORIGINAL version of this story:

Matilda, Who Told Lies and was Burnt to Death.

I am not kidding.  Hilaire Belloc was not messing around.  I have vivid memories of reading Belloc's Bad Child Book of Beasts when I was a kid.  Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953) was a French-Anglo writer -- and he wrote a lot -- and his "Cautionary Tales" are really quite terrific -- in the sense of really terrifying!

So I was very pleased with my purchase.  When we got it home, I looked at it a bit more closely and noticed an inscription on the inside of the front cover, reading "To Melissa: On Dec 2 1995 -- First Confession at Queen of Angels in Port Angeles!"

For readers unfamiliar with the specifics here, "First Confession" is a rite of the Catholic Church that comes before your First Communion -- typically when you're in about the first grade.  While First Communion is often an occasion for celebration (lots of folks invite families and have a little party and the young person receives gifts such as books, a bible, a rosary, etc.), First CONFESSION, at least in my experience, is a rather somber moment, and certainly not one that involves parties or presents.   In fact, in my own recollection (and that of some of my Catholic friends) First Confession was a somewhat terrifying experience, because you had to sit down and remember all the sins you had committed and then tell a priest ALL of them, and not forget about any of them, or that was another sin, and then you had to go to Confession again (or at least that's what we thought).  And again, we were first graders.  We didn't really HAVE much to confess.  (Yes, Brendan, I know I had locked you in the closet several times by this point, but really, a sin?)

Anyway, the person who inscribed this book to poor little Melissa was commemorating what was possibly a scary thing by giving her a book in which the young, female protagonist tells a lie and then is burned up in a fire.  Wow.  Now that's a heck of a gift!

In slightly less terrifying book purchases, we also acquired a copy of Eric Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes!
 

It's one delicious read!