Diversity Rules Magazine

11 Diversity Rules Magazine February 2017 Her most recent book, An American Queer, a collection of "e Amazon Trail" col- umns, was presented with the 2015 Golden Crown Literary Society Award in Anthology/ Collection Creative Non Fic- tion. is, and her award- winning fiction, including e Raid, e Swashbuckler, and Beggar of Love, can be found at http://www.bold- strokesbooks.com/Author-Lee-Lynch.html. As an adult, I've had no interest in chil- dren's books. I left them behind half a century ago. Or did I? Chicken Little, for example, has been a powerful influence in my life. I was a ner- vous child—that hasn't changed—and the Little Golden Book didn't help. First my mother read it to me, then I read and re-read it on my own. I didn't have many books then, which might help to explain why visitors never see walls in the home my sweetheart and I share. e walls are covered by bookcases. After an acorn falls on its head, Chicken Little runs around telling everyone she meets that the sky is fall- ing. Toddlers have few filters; I believed every word. I also remember the version in which the chicken is called Henny Penny. Other character names are still familiar and come out in my speech at times: Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey. I never knew until now that Chicken Little was a folk tale so ancient even the Buddha told a variant of it. During World War II a short film adapted the story to warn of Nazi propaganda. ere are very bad endings to the tale, involving a fox, and there are benign end- ings with positive messages. In the rendition I read, Chicken Little, the runt of the henhouse, gathers a retinue of believers who go to the king to report that the sky is falling. e king corrects and reassures them, urging the animals to be courageous rather than panicked. What a potent message. I internalized it and, for the most part, have lived my life with that moral in mind because I, like many, am a Chicken Little and need the weapon of conscious courage to get through life. Just as important, I learned that words and stories shape and change lives. My mother didn't believe in spending money on books (Little Golden Books cost twenty-five cents apiece!), but went to the library a lot. She parked me in the chil- dren's section downstairs while upstairs she borrowed authors like R.F. Delderfield, Elizabeth Goudge, and Helen MacInnes. Little Golden Books appealed to me. ey looked most like the "real" books from up- stairs, with hard-board covers and metallic gold strip spines. I read e Little Red Hen, ree Little Kittens, and e Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowrey, among others. But I had an attitude. As soon as I could hold them, I moved on to books which didn't have cartoonish pic- tures, but sophisticated illustrations and pages filled with words I learned as I went. e family did own a Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Collegiate Edition. Now I could read Huckleberry Finn, Treasure Island, and e Yearling. ose books were absorbing, but I don't think they taught me anything as important as what I learned from Chicken Little and e Little Engine at Could. Well, okay, I was crushed by the marriage of Jo in Little Women, so I maybe learned what I didn't want in life. If Chicken Little taught me something about courage, e Little Engine at Could taught me that persever- ance is a form of courage. I literally took "I think I can, I think I can," as my own personal maxim. It carried me through sixteen years of dreaded school days, into Amazon Trail - Con't on page 12 The Amazon Trail The Mightiest of Books By Lee Lynch (c) Can Stock Photo Inc. / grsphoto

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