Edward and the Pirates

As a little boy, curled up in my bed, I would read with such concentration that nothing else could penetrate the world I had entered.

I was like Max in Where the Wild Things Are.  My bedroom would morph into whatever I was reading about.  Sometimes I was in a far off kingdom with knights (who used big words I didn't understand) fighting dragons or on the prairie with the Ingalls family or swashbuckling on a pirate ship .  The books transported me like that song Sailin' On with the lyrics "The ship was my bed and the waves were my pillow and the dark sky breathed and the sheets used to billow as I'd go sailin' on."

I couldn't imagine why anyone would say that reading was boring or uninteresting.

I still can't.

Lauren and I read Edward and the Pirates by David McPhail to our students this week and the magical, transformative quality of books came sweeping back.  We may have been sitting in our classroom but our minds were in Edward's world surrounded by pirates and possibility.

The children were transfixed.

This book reminded me of all those long ago nights getting lost in reading. When I first discovered that reading carried such power. When I first fell in love with sitting alone but not really being alone because on the page all of these amazing things were taking place.

So thank you to David McPhail for capturing this with your beautiful book. And thanks to the authors who have transported me time and time again into those stunning worlds created by words.