The Hundred Dresses

This was the blip I planned to take last week but Im had secreted the book away somewhere. Now she's at Mornington Peninsula I can find anything I want!

Like me, and my mother before me, she's a fanatic reader, and it gives me so much pleasure to share the treasures of my childhood with her. (With the single exception of AA Milne, L takes one look at one of my long lost friends and says with horror - "NO - it's too old).

But Im and I have shared a few sentimental (this word chosen carefully) favourites already - The Velveteen Rabbit (read so many times it's almost real), Lotta, Little O, Gertrude's Child, The Selfish Giant ... the list is endless, with many more to come.

The photo shows the three of us at roughly the same age, my mother in the year this book was written. I'm not sure if she's ever read it, as I thnk I only ever read it independently, in abridged format in the wonderful Colliers Junior Classics (the same series that fills my son with special horror).

Even in my day, much of the charm of these stories was their antiquated, from-another-era feel, the sense of looking into a semi-distant past.

As an adult rereading this story of accidental and unthinking bullying, and schoolyard cowardice, the resolution seems trite, unlikely and unnecessary. However, the journey of the heroine is still an inspiring one, and the psychological portraits as true as any today.

Thank you Mum, for sharing the joys of reading. and Im, for renewing those pleasures!