Books are gentle companions. Usually.
Except for that one time I was just about murdered by books.
That was twenty years ago . . .

***
I didn't know what to do with my life. I had no ...  [+]

All Julie did was toss a piece of bubble gum into her mouth, one day. Honey plum-plum flavor. Her favorite. And then...

She blew ONE GUM BUBBLE.

That's it.

It may not sound like much ...  [+]

Sometimes I can't sleep. That's because of the bear under the bed.

One night, the bear was breathing hard.

When he breathed in, the bed lifted up off the floor.

When he breathed out, the ...  [+]

Tracy Jo Freely climbed a tree one day. A plum tree. The big plum tree at the end of Miro Street.
"When are you coming back down?" her parents asked her an hour later.
"Never," said Tracy Jo.
He ...  [+]

The children don't understand.

The sweets they pine for are not squeezed from the machine with stripes intact. No—they must be painted on, by hand, with so much care. It is almost unimaginable, the ...  [+]