A Sick Day For Amos McGee

I just returned 6 children’s books to the library. Among them, my favorite,”A Sick Day for Amos McGee” by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by his wife, Erin E. Stead.

When I first got the books out I was surprised by my own excitement. I couldn’t wait to sit down, read the stories, look at the pictures, and let my mind imagine as it did when I was a child.

As I gathered all my books and curled into the corner of he couch, a glass of chocolate milk not far away, I felt giddy with anticipation!

My imagination was led from the zoo to the countryside, and from the ocean to a conversation between a pigeon and a chick about an oatmeal cookie.

All in one sitting.

My heart beat faster as I leafed through and wondered if the pigeon would actually get the cookie after all. And, if the little boy on the big blue boat would find his lost bear that his parents had replaced with a toaster.

I laughed as a shy little boy drew a monster who became so demanding he had to draw it a one way ticket out of town to make it leave. I grimaced at the thought of peas and tuna fish on toast and I commiserated with the squinty eyed boy who was waiting for spring.

I found myself smiling after I finished. I felt lighter. My mind imagining as I had when I was little. I felt full of big dreams and excitement. “Strange,” I thought. “All I did was read some children’s books.”

What I realized is we think so logically as adults. We think in terms of can and can’t, not of how and when. We don’t imagine or dream nearly enough.

Children’s books break all the rules. They use a story to teach a lesson. And the story can be about, well, anything you imagine. I mean, C.S. Lewis wrote about talking animals and traveling through a wardrobe to a land where kids became princes and queens in The Chronicles of Narnia! Talk about using his imagination.

We have been given our imaginations for a reason and too often they are tucked away to be replaced by reason and practicality.

We all had big dreams and vivid imaginations when we were little. I think we need to be reminded of those dreams and give our minds the opportunity to imagine again.

If you’ve never done it, go to the library and get out some children’s books. Perhaps your favorite books from when you were young, or maybe just certain ones that catch your eye.  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
~ Dr. Seuss

All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.
~ Brian Tracy

Question: Do you have a favorite children’s book? Tell me, I am going to take another trip to the library soon. 🙂