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| With Theodore Taylor, 1992 |
This morning on Facebook I saw this illustration about reading, posted by the Frugal Frigate Children's bookstore. Boy, does it brings back happy memories.
In 1989 Katherine Thomerson owned the Frugal Frigate in Redlands, California and
hosted my first, of what would be many, signings there. This charming bookstore was in an old brick
building around the corner from a bakery where she bought a basket of large
sugar cookies every morning. Whenever we
stepped inside her shop, a tiny bell jingled over the door and she greeted the
kids by name, offering a cookie.
"Here, have another," she'd say. My boys adored her.
When Jenny
of the Tetons arrived from the publisher, Katherine phoned me at our apartment:
"Kristi, they're here!"
We raced downtown.
I hadn't yet seen the books, only the cover. So when I pulled back a flap of the carton
and saw the real thing, twenty hardcovers stacked so pretty, I got choked
up. They had that wonderful aroma that
goes back to the first day of school when we'd put our noses inside our brand
new textbooks. Katherine handed me
Kleenex, the boys hugged me, strangers cheered.
At one Frugal Frigate signing I shared a table
with Theodore Taylor, the venerable author of fast-paced adventures. A World War II vet, he helped with the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!, based on his book Air Raid--Pearl Harbor!
I'd long been a fan so I was star-struck, but he
put me at ease and we became friends. The Hostage, about killer whales being
trapped near Vancouver for a marine park, stirred my boys with compassion for
these wild animals, and The Trouble With
Tuck, about a good ol' dog inspired our family to get a puppy. We have a shelf of his books with personal
notes from him. In 2005 he sent his
memoir, Making Love to Typewriters,
inscribed, "Dear Kristiana, Such a pack of lies! Love, Ted."
His kind words for my writing encouraged me to
keep going.
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