Saturday Surprise!

Last Saturday, my book club friend, B--- whom I call Seez (for sister) because we hoard school and office supplies, like books and pictures and we both can't ride bikes--- gave me a couple of books that I absolutely love.

I read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs several years ago, when a good friend loaned me a dozen of her favorite books. I love it; the popular fable as told by the misunderstood wolf who maintains that he had been framed. I'm ecstatic that I now have my own copy. It's one of those books that you'd want to keep forever, not just for the exciting twist in the story but for the illustrations of Lane Smith.

"The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories" by Tim Burton is a collection of poems illustrated in his gruesome but engaging style. His characters are all misfits: a robot boy, a voodoo girl, a superhero with no super powers save that of leaving stains, an oyster boy who was devoured by his father for his inherent aphrodisiac properties, and a melonhead who learned to be careful what he wished for, though he learned his lesson too late. Burton paints a vicious world where it's a challenge to fit in, especially for one who is not considered "normal". But though his characters' flaws and experiences are exaggerated, their needs and struggles are very similar to our own. We can only be so thankful that we're not melonheads.