We spent the past day or two calling on old friends we had not seen since August--John, Susan, Titty, Roger, Nancy, Peggy, Dorothea, and Dick--beloved characters from the memorable Arthur Ransome series, Swallows and Amazons. In "Winter Holiday," the fourth book in the series, our favorite pirates and explorers skate, trudge through the ice-covered arctic, erect an igloo, dwell in a desolate houseboat, and streak across a frozen lake under sail, all the while never missing a single teatime.
We have read Swallows and Amazons many times and listened to the entire series on tape this past Summer. Needless to say,"Winter Holiday" is an entertaining read any time of year, but back in July we vowed to revisit the story during the colder months. Two nights ago, with no prior introduction, I settled the kids down to begin an unnamed read aloud. There were a few murmurs from the ranks, with curious children wondering why I was being so mysterious. I cleared my throat and began the first sentence: "Steps sounded on the wooden stairs, and counting, 'Seven and eight and nine and ten and eleven and twelve and that's the dozen.'" Instantly, a cheer of elation and acknowledgement went up--it was as if I announced a pending trip to a favorite ski lodge.
With younger children, we always read and re-read favorite picture books numberless times. As every mother will attest, for pre-schoolers, the hundredth read is as gratifying as the first--more so even. They thrive on the familiar and delight in the anticipation of a favorite line or illustration waiting right round the next bend. It occurs to me now that we have begun to re-visit many of our old favorite novels, this delight in the familiar does not impede with age. Agnes, Theresa, Margaret, Marie, and, in his own way, even Patrick, were as excited to begin Winter Holiday as Maureen is when I pick up "Fox in Socks." At one or two points, Agnes precipitated choice lines from the book just as I reached them. "The Arctic might be in a poor way for ice," I would lead off, and she would whisper, as if on cue, "but inside the igloo, with the lantern and the fire, what did it matter whether the world outside was as they left it or fathoms deep in snow?" It reminded me of the days when she completed each line in "Madeline's Christmas" as an eighteen-month-old toddler. That easy friendship with books has never faded for her or the others, but only flourished and flowered with time.
Years ago, when the girls were first old enough to read something more advanced than picture books, I remember poring over booklists of "must read" novels. In my mind, there was a checklist of these must-reads, and I wanted the girls to experience every last one of them. Undeniably, there is great value in discovering new books and personalities to love, but we are careful not to neglect our first friends. Year after year, we drop in on Ebeneezer Scrooge, Laura Ingalls, Martha Morse, Matthias and Cornflower, Bilbo Baggins, Basil Stag Hare, Charlotte Tucker, Anne Shirley, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, the Pevensies, Mary Lennox, the Bastables, Heidi and others. These characters have a life of their own to us, and our bond with them is deepened with each fresh read.
