Literary Flashback

Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo

That takes me back.

I just read that the illustrator of said book died.

My memory was flooded with images of Mrs. Levy sitting in the corner rocking chair of the library reading room at Springdale Elementary. Her completely stereotypical reading glasses perched on the end of her stereotypically pointed nose-spectacles clipped to a string of beads that wound round her wrinkled neck.

After every word on the page was dutifully recited, she would stretch the spine to give every cross-legged listener a good look at the illustrations. Front row seats were the best because in first grade, everyone knows the pictures are the best part.