Book Beyond the Cover

We were talking R.L. Stein—the Fear Street series—we being my best friend Jackie and I. 

I said, “I owned almost all of them,” meaning the Fear Street books, “I loved those books too.  They were books I never read, but loved to hold because their covers were awesome.”

She said, “I always do that! Especially when I was younger. I'd buy books from those scholastic magazines and never read them. We're mavericks who judge books by their cover.”

I said, “I would buy this one book from the scholastic magazine every year, the same book, just because I loved the cover, never read it, and would then lose the book over and over and over again.  And meanwhile I probably would have loved it—all seven million copies of it.”

The book was this, and I had to do extensive full-out research just to find it:

The book has many different covers, but none like this one.  This book is a part of a series also, the prequel to this one being The Castle in the Attic.

So Jackie said, “Aw, the Princess is you!”

And I said, “I know! That’s why I fell in love with that cover, every year.”  And then I got teary-eyed thinking about how I might never get the chance to read the book beyond the cover. (That would be a great name for a book by the by: The Book Beyond the Cover).  But I might still have two copies somewhere, out of the zillion my mother purchased for me—there is hope yet.

           Then I added this fun fact in for Jackie—hopefully it will be as fun for you too (to make fun of maybe, why not): 

“So I used to literally play games with my books, like teatime with stuffed animals, that was me with books.  I wouldn't play board games with them or play tea really, but I would put them all in a pile, spread them out and fan them, and jump around on my couch with them—which I guess is worse because I was treating them like real people I was having a girlie slumber party with as opposed to pretending they are real people at a table drinking tea, who I am talking for but who are really inanimate, because that way I was even making them move and interact physically.  I am sick!”

And the books I would jump around with—Jump! Jump! Jump!—was, guess what, another series.  And they were these: 

And this was the BEST collection, you know why?  Not because I actually read them, nor because the titles were so captivating.  Not even because the covers were extraordinary and eccentric!  But because the blonde little character with the headband in her hair has the same name as me: Liza. 

  

*Special thanks to Jackie Kerouacie for being the best friend, and one who understands my sick obsession with books! Love ya!