Seriously Collaborative Fun by Christy Hale

Posted by CBethM on May 13, 2026 in Author Posts | For me, memories of reading are about connection: curled in my father’s lap, listening to stories from The Fairy Tale Book by Marie Ponsot, or my mother at my bedside reading classics like The Secret Garden and Little Women. I even felt connected to Louisa May Alcott because we regularly drove past her house in Concord, Massachusetts. And so, books and friendship are intertwined for me, too. Every Saturday, after finishing my chores and claiming my allowance, I walked down the street to my very first friend’s house, then together, Laura and I continued on our journey. We passed the housing development and woods with the neighborhood tree houses, the swamp with cattails and pussy willows, the railroad tracks, then the busy intersection with Crystal Pond on one side and Miss Faye’s Country Day School on the other. Older houses gave way to small businesses, and at last we saw the flag. We had arrived at the library! We returned last week’s selections and made our choices for the coming week. Juggling new stacks of books, we each dug into our pockets for our dimes, then crossed the street to the IGA, our second—secret—destination. We t...