The Vintage Reader

Have you ever started reading a book and realized that you've read it before?

Recently I became a little bit obsessed with finding a book for Vintage Toddler. I knew it was by Richard Scarry, and I knew there was a picture of a frog playing an oboe in it. I thought the line that accompanied that was "...and Froggy played his oboe."

So I Googled and Yahooed and so on, and finally decided to use Amazon's "Search Inside This Book" feature to see if I could find it. I tried the exact phrase, to no avail. Then I tried "froggy" and "oboe" together. Still nothing. "Froggy" and "Scarry." Nothing. Finally I tried "oboe" and "Scarry" and found the page with the frog playing his oboe. The line was "Froggie played his oboe." It was in a story about a chipmunk who has a birthday, and the story was in The Best Storybook Ever, which is a compilation of Richard Scarry books and excerpts. I ordered it and sat back to wait, assuming that the story about the chipmunk's birthday would be the only familiar one.

Not so. Every single story in this book is familiar to me. I remember the artwork, I remember the phrasing. The copyright is 1969, which is exactly when I remember reading the book: it was before we moved to Arizona, and I was 3. I don't remember anyone reading the book TO me, although I suppose someone must have, because hey: 3. But I remember every picture and every story, from Mr. Mouse going to visit Mistress Mouse to the polite elephant to the crow and the cheese to the country mouse and the city mouse. I remember them vividly. I loved this book when I was 3, and I'm glad I found it for Vintage Toddler. And if it weren't for Froggie and his oboe and "Search Inside This Book" I probably would never have found it again.