Yesterday, I made a big deal about taking Betty to the library and picking out a brand new book, about this dancing hippo that I was sure she would love. Last night, after her bath and change into pajamas, I opened up her brand new (to her) book, only to have her firmly close it on me and point to her usual book, SLEEPY ABC. I thought maybe closing the book had been a playful mistake on her part, so I reopened it. But she closed it again, and then again, pointing so emphatically at her other book that I gave in and read her SLEEPY ABC. I do weeklong rotations of three different books, but this one is our “on the road” book and therefore the one she’s heard the most, since we’re traveling fools. But last night I realized that this is also the book she would take with her if stranded on a deserted island.
Authors get asked for their deserted island picks all the time. I usually say THE COLOR PURPLE, since it’s my favorite book of all time. But what’s interesting is that answer would change if asked which author I’d want to take if I were stranded on a deserted island. Betty’s answer would stay the same. Margaret Wise Brown wrote both GOODNIGHT MOON and SLEEPY ABC, but I’m not nearly as devoted to Alice Walker’s other works.
So the answer becomes a bit trickier. There are a number of authors who I’d read anything by, but most of them wouldn’t make my short list, just because they don’t have enough books to sustain me for very long. Really, you’d want the best prolific author you could find. I’d want to take someone who had written at least ten books. So who does that leave? Stephen King? Nora Roberts? Pearl Cleage? Toni Morrison? I don’t know that I’d be able to decide.
Luckily, I don’t have to, but which author’s works would you pick to take with you to a deserted island. S/he doesn’t have to be prolific. Really I’m just wondering if you, like me, wouldn’t pick the same author of the one book you’d take with you to a deserted island.
And click on the pic the order the book!