Telling Fairy Tales at Cupboard Maker Books
We had a busy, long day Saturday. We got up at 7 am for the Kiwanis Club Spring Arts and Crafts Show and did well. That took until 2 pm. Bill’s providing the report for that, so I won’t rehash the day other than to say that, as always, it’s fun to get out and about.
Once we finished there, we moved directly on to Cupboard Maker Books in Enola. In addition to Saturday, 27 April being when the local Kiwanis Club held their Arts and Crafts show, 27 April is also the annual Independent Bookstore day.
For small, independent bookstores like Cupboard Maker, this is another opportunity to let people know that, hey! There’s an actual bookstore in your area and you should patronize it so it can stay in business. (Here’s Cupboard Maker’s Facebook page if you’re interested in visiting.)
We love Cupboard Maker Books (books and cats, what’s not to love) and so, of course, we were there.
Michelle, our fearless owner, chose fairy tales as her theme for the day. Bill and I both read our choice, me at 4:30 or so, and Bill at about 5 pm.
I chose a classic Japanese fairy tale because it involved both cats and the class struggle, two topics near and dear to my heart. It is ‘On Cat Mountain’ by Françoise Richard and gloriously illustrated by Anne Buguet. Here’s the link if you’d like to get a copy of your own.
Ms. Richard published this book back in 1994 so it’s quite possible in these dread days of library de-accessioning, that your local library doesn’t have a copy any more.
Bill, for his part, chose several of James Thurber’s short stories from his collection entitled ‘Fables for Our Times’. Here’s the link for your own copy.
Sadly, this book, even more so than Ms. Richard’s delightful book is unlikely to be on the shelves of your local library. I mean, James Thurber! A book written back in the last days of the Great Depression! The horror.
Yet the stores, all no more than two pages and each with its own, delightful line drawing, are charming, sly, sharp, and very, very pointed. They even come with morals, just like Aesop’s fables do. And, like Aesop, what James Thurber is talking about with his stories about rabbits and crows and elephants is us.
I’d swear that the lessons in some of those pieces are even more correct for today, than they were the day they were written.
We had a good time, as always at Cupboard Maker Books, meeting and talking to all kinds of great people.
So, since yesterday was Independent Bookstore Day, go find your local, indie bookstore. They need you, and you need them. They’ll stretch your horizons.