Buried Treasure: Review of Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain

Carmon Friedrich at Buried Treasure Books has some reviews on her site for books I hadn't known about - like Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, by Edward Ardizzone:

This story is one of several adventures about Tim, written in the 1940's and 50's. Edward Ardizzone's beautiful watercolor paintings combine with his pen and ink drawings to charmingly illustrate this tale.

I'll keep a lookout for books in the series from here on out, I think. But what moved me to laughter was the start of this review:

I still have the letter that I wrote to my parents when I decided to run away from home as a small girl. I told them that I would be in the back yard but that I would deign to come home for Christmas and birthdays. Little Tim, however, is much more adventurous than I. He runs away to sea and doesn't return home until forced by a shipwreck.

I can identify with this. My brothers loved to tell me about the day I ran away from home when our sister was a baby and getting way too much attention (in our eyes). I resolutely put my doll in my little baby carriage and set out - actually left home with nothing but my carriage, my doll, and the clothes on my back. They, uhmmmm, found me on the corner of the block farthest away from our house. My running away plans had been thwarted by the fact that I wasn't allowed to cross the street by myself yet. According to my brothers, I stood there for hours staring at the outside world from the most remote street corner available in my own mind.

I am sure my brothers were exaggerating. This was not the sort of neighborhood where a child could stand in one place for hours. I have no doubt that several grown-ups had me in sight the entire time, and were gasping for breath laughing themselves silly while they politely hid behind curtains to watch the show. Probably they called each other on the phone. Hey, Patricia, take a look out your window. The doctor's kid is trying to run away from home but remembered she can't cross the street. Is that funny, or is that funny?

What can I say? I was a kid.

And let's be clear here. If I'd made any effort to actually cross the street, the neighbors undoubtedly would have swooped. It was that sort of neighborhood. Thank goodness.

I'd like to thank Carmon for not only alerting me to some books that sound worth looking up, but also dredging up a funny old memory I hadn't visited in a while.