We get stuck with how people see us

[sovay]

Remember that children's picture book with the sea-ghosts I was mentioning a few weeks ago? I found it. It's Birdy and the Ghosties (1989); I recognized the cover illustration immediately. What I didn't remember was its author, Jill Paton Walsh. Who is also responsible for The Green Book (1981), which rushthatspeaks and I both read in elementary school, possibly under its reissue title of Shine, and A Parcel of Patterns (1984), which traumatized us a few years later. Who knew? At this point, I'm just waiting to see what else turns up out of her bibliography—oh, wait, Fireweed's (1970) hers, too. Yes, I have been recommended Knowledge of Angels (1994). What I can't figure out is how she seems to have wound up best known for her Sayers fic.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Sovay, you can apparently buy a copy for *a penny* (plus shipping...)

I remember your talking about this. How cool that you found it.

[sovay]

I remember your talking about this. How cool that you found it.

The image that I remember the book for is that when Birdy looks at them one way, the ghosts are like things dredged off the ocean floor—scrabbly as a lobster, a slump of sea-jellied slime, a rotting fish for the child's toy—and the other way they're royalty of the sea, clean and shining, with crowns and something beautifully carved. I meant to get a copy out of the library today, but it didn't happen. I thought maybe it was also the book with the mer-child sleeping in the baptismal font, but that appears to be Matthew and the Sea Singer (1992).

The other one I'd lost for years was Trinka Hakes Noble's Hansy's Mermaid (1983), which my friendlist actually helped me identify. I still don't own a copy, but at least I know where to find it.

What I really want is an affordable copy of The Valley of Song. So far, not so much.