Andy Chase

While poking around online for an old book for somebody else, it occurred to me to see if there were any copies of Three To Get Ready, one of my favorite childhood books that I probably checked out of the Princeton Library 2 dozen times over the years.

Sure enough, used copies of the book are available at decent prices. I never paid attention to the writer and illustrator when I was a kid, but it was written by Betty Boegehold and illustrated by Mary Chalmers. The book contains three stories about three different kittens learning basic life lessons (all that stuff about being nice to one another and minding your parents) from their mother. The stories are nice, but what I liked best about the book were the illustrations.

Then I decided to see if I could dig anything up about one of my other favorite books that I still have, which is actually here in California. Now, my fellow Generation X-ers will no doubt snort derisively at the title of this one. (wow, according to this page both my older brother and my younger sister belong to gen-x, too) It's called The Snuggle Bunny, by Nancy Jewell. And, as I realized tonight for the first time, illustrated by Mary Chalmers.

It's not surprising that two of my favorite childhood books would be illustrated by the same person, but it gave me the same spine-tingling feeling I got when I first saw the Dire Straits video for Calling Elvis back around 1990. The video used footage from Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. By the time I saw the video I had completely forgotten about Thunderbirds, but in a flash I remembered many early childhood Saturdays spent watching Thunderbirds on some UHF station out of Boston.

It's like Deja Vu, only stronger because you really did experience the stuff you suddenly feel like you've seen/heard/watched before.