...& other rare birds.

gather round all of you who are young at heart...

i have a story for you...

of the ice-cream cone coot and other rare birds

(by arnold lobel, copyright 1971)

"These Highbutton Bobolinks

Croon to the night.

One fits the left foot,

One fits the right."

"Each day you must water your Flowerpot Plume.

The buds in his bird brain are certain to bloom."

"Instead of fine feathers as most other birds,

The Newspaper Peeper is covered with words."

"All ladies agree, this bird is worth knowing.

The Pincushion Piffle will help with the sewing."

"The Gramophone Gullfinch will beautifully sing.

Just put on a record and wind up the spring."

(top to bottom)

 "This bird will tip his empty head.

He'll ask you please to fill it.

Pour tea into the Cupadee

And take care not to spill it."

"The Shuttercluck will never sing, nor will he ever fly.

But he can take your picture when he clicks his big round eye."

"Yes, all the birds inside this book

Are very strange and rare,

And I repeat, it would be hard

To find them anywhere.

So do not search your neighborhood

With cage or trap or net,

For not a single boy or girl

Has ever caught one yet."

The End.

when i was little, we would take trips to the milton public library,

and this book was one of my all time favorite selections.

i remember fumbling over the pages, no doubt with sticky kid fingers,

and my imagination would be set into motion.

i have never forgotten it.

my husband located a copy of this book for me as a Christmas gift.

i think i shall cherish it forever.

literary scholar? obviously not.

parent? nope, not yet.

but

my heart is laced with colorful shoe strings and

my soul still wears pony tails.

and even now,

when i skim through my very own copy

decorated with stains of love and age,

i carefully turn the delicate pages

and my imagination is set into motion.

fly,

sarah beth