FREDERICK by Leo Lionni
As a senior, it seems I am expected to come into my own and accept with a heavy heart and baited breath my future without Northwestern. Instead, I find myself regressing increasingly into childish behavior. Please see: eating cold leftovers in my pajamas at 2 p.m. and thinking it is a fantastic and adequate meal, staring at random things on campus longingly, or re-reading most of my favorite books I grew up with. Can you guess which one I’m going to be talking about this week?
Frederick by Leo Lionni is a book that any able supporter (or most likely these days, defender) of the arts should know about. We follow the tale of a group of friendly mice gathering the necessary food and materials for winter. They all work day and night, toiling away – that is, except for our lazy mouse hero Frederick. Annoyed, the other mice ask Frederick why he simply stares at the sun or nods off in the shade. He explains that he is collecting the colors, the sun and words to keep them sated during the long winter months. Despite acting like a lazy jerk, Frederck redeems himself in the end with his vivid images and lyrical stories of the spring, keeping the mice happy and entertained until the winter thaws.
For those of you from warmer states who yearn for the lack of winter, Frederick has you got: “Spring is first with April showers, summer next with fragrant flowers. Then comes fall with nuts and wheat, and winter last with chilly feet. Aren’t we lucky the seasons are four? Think of a year with one less, or one more!” Doesn’t that make you feel just a little bit better about our questionable temperature fluctuations?
Revisit your childhood with a few more of the classics (or at least, classics in my home):
DON’T CALL ME LITTLE BUNNY
by Gregoire Solotareff
EVERYONE POOPS
by Taro Gomi
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
by Maurice Sendak
