The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

But what September chiefly noticed were their hats.
Any child knows what a witch looks like. The warts are important, yes, the hooked nose, the cruel smile. But it's the hat that cinches it: pointy and black with a wide rim. Plenty of people have warts and hooked noses and cruel smiles but are not witches at all. Hats change everything. September knew this with all her being, deep in the place where she knew her own name . . . For one day, her father had put on a hat with golden things on it and suddenly he hadn't been her father anymore, he had been a soldier, and he had left. Hats have power. Hats can change you into someone else.

There's much more to be said about the true nature of seasons, sentient keys, the immorality of novelists, the thoughtfulness of smoking jackets, the desires and drives of shoes....But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So last week, I found myself on the end of a batch of pretty heavy books, and needed something light and breezy – hopefully cheery, too. So I grabbed this off my daughter's shelf (had been meaning to get around to it since I bought it for her 3 years ago). It didn't at all fit the bill for what I wanted, but thankfully was an enjoyable read about a girl named September and the improbable trip she takes to (and around) Fairyland.

Those were all big words, to be sure, but as it has been said, September read often, and like it best when words did not pretend to be simple, but put on their full armor and rode out with colors flying

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

fun