Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I Introduce My Children to Amphigorey

I was sitting in my husbands home office, idling examining the titles on his bookshelves when one grabbed my eye- Amphigorey Also.

I love Edward Gorey, his drawings are beautiful and the accompanying texts are wonderfully twisted and lyrical. I've read one description of his writings as Dr. Seuss for grownups. He dark and demented humor is not to every one's taste, but I adore his books. There is a wonderful meter that somehow presents the most macabre stories in a cheerful tone.

One of my all time favorite stories is the "Ghastlycrumb Tinies" in Amphigorey, a strange tale of children meeting their respective doom alphabetically. I read it to Nate and he was delighted. Jake stopped by and wanted to know what was going on so I handed him Amphigorey Too. When I last checked they were happily paging through the two books.

Max and Rebecca are far too young for these books, but the older two are ready. Now they will learn where mommy gets her sometimes dark sense of humor.

No comments: