Harold and the Purple Crayon.

I like to read.  I'm not a fast reader, an avid reader, or the kind of reader I'd like to be, but I enjoy it.  I have a lot of books I want to read.  I also have a lot of books I believe I need to read.  For example, I am one of the few rare species that has not finished reading the Harry Potter series.  I got up to the middle of book number five,  and decided it was getting a bit boring or too dark or just simply decided I didn't have time to read it right then.  I also need to finish the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Lord of the Rings, a whole bunch of marriage books, and all the books I bought during one of Better World Book's awesome sales.  And then...because I married a nerd, I've inherited all these other books I've always wanted to read or am curious to stick my face in.

So, with this predicament at hand, you can probably see why I would have such a hard time walking into Barnes & Noble to choose a book in celebration of my husband's tradition of buying a book and eating banana split sundaes the day before the first day of school.  I look around and all I see are books I want to read, books I want to buy, and books I highly doubt I'll get a chance to read in the near future.  I don't know  how long I spent walking around the store just reading wonderful book titles, admiring pretty book covers, and then thinking of our stuffed bookshelves back home.  It was quite depressing, actually.

But then, I wandered over to the children's section.  I thought of taking a look around because earlier in the summer I jotted down an idea I wanted to do for taking sabbath where I would go to the children's section of a bookstore and spend hours just reading the books right off the shelves.  Then I came up with a brilliant idea:  what if I picked a children's book to buy instead?  I definitely wouldn't feel guilty about not being able to read it because duh, I could probably read it in a few minutes.  And it would serve other purposes - like having some books available for kids if we decide to do some babysitting or just have little guests over.  And on top of that, I thought it'd be a good investment to start picking up some of my favorite children's books to build a library for my (very) future kids.  No time like the present to invest in the future.

Well as it turns out, picking out one children's book wasn't any easier than picking out a book from the adult sections.  I found some lovely collections of children's books that I'd love to get my hands on, but they were over my budget.  I found a few books I was familiar with, but didn't think it was worth getting this time around or didn't think it'd be a children's book Nathan would necessarily enjoy as much, and I wanted to take his children's book tastes into consideration.  The closest B&N to me and Nathan is pretty small, so I thought it was a small selection that didn't have many children's books I was familiar with.  But after I convened with Nathan for a few minutes and returned to the hunt in the children's section I started hitting the jackpot.  I found book after book of stories I remembered my mom reading to me as a kid, or books I enjoyed reading in elementary school, or some favorites I remember learning about from Reading Rainbow.

It was a tough decision.  Finally, after who knows how long, I picked a book Nathan had mentioned a long time ago that he liked, which I had always heard about but had never read.  As you can guess, it was Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon.  It was perfect.  It was a book I had never read, it was a book I'd probably enjoy, I knew Nathan liked it, and it was a children's book.    

Nathan read the book to me tonight, and I really enjoyed it.  Harold's awesome.  He's got this great purple crayon and does great things with it.  And as I've been thinking about it, there are some things I admire about Harold that I wish I had myself.  You know it's a great children's book when it doesn't just apply to kids but adults can connect with the story, too.

Here are some of the things I noticed about Harold:

1.  He takes time to think.
2.  He's a visionary.  He knows exactly what he wants to see happen.
3.  He decides what he wants to do and goes and does it.
4.  He's not perturbed by mistakes or unseen events.
5.  He's a creative problem-solver.
6.  He acts quickly when it's called for.
7.  He's not afraid to climb hills that turn into mountains.
8.  He's not afraid to keep trying when he doesn't succeed.

I wish I had a purple crayon like Harold.  Maybe if I did I'd be more like him.