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The Language of Goldfish
American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, 1980, 1982, 1985
Madeleine is sprawled upside-down in a chair, book held at arms' length above her head. She is reading. I know she won't hear me when I tell her lunch is ready. I will need to tell her several times before, vague-eyed, she turns to look at me. So compelling, apparently, is this book about trolls.
She has read the book at least three times, but, clearly, she still finds it engrossing. In my grandmotherly way I wonder what there could be about this book to merit so many rereadings. And yet, almost as I am asking myself the question, I think of Rackety-Packety House and the number of times I read it the winter I was eight.
That winter I no sooner finished the book than I began to read it again. Its story of a dollhouse family coming secretly to life whenever humans left the room enthralled me. It was not the magic, itself, that I found so fascinating. It was the idea that one could have a secret life. I deeply desired a secret life of my own, but I was encountering difficulties.
Chief...