Lettuces and Love

A promising cover: big clouds, a blustery wind, and Pookie’s worldly possessions tied up in a spotted handkerchief. What adventure waits inside!

I was very young when I first started browsing in ‘op shops’, as charity stores are called here in Australia. One of my favourite things to do was to visit the local library on Saturdays – I just loved books, and was thrilled to have my very own library card.

After visiting the library, my older sister Star and I would cross the road and go to the Lion’s Club op shop and look at the heaving bookshelves there. I was under ten, so the children’s picture books interested me most. 

I would sit on the floor and look through piles of discarded, colourful books and take home my favourites. They were 10¢, 20¢; my sister paid for them. 

I particularly remember Ivy L. Wallace’s Pookie tales, about an adventuresome winged bunny, and his friends: fairies, pixies, mice, owls and squirrels all happily living and working together. I loved the cosy friendliness of their lives: outside it was snowing, but inside they were all safe and warm, and merry. 

I loved this cosy image: even the owl and mice ensconced on Santa’s lap have their own tiny glasses.

Pookie’s snuggled up in his picnic hamper; how sweet is this ending? He dreams of Lettuces and Love…

I don’t know what became of those books, but I do remember seeing one in a secondhand bookstore a year or two ago. It was well over $20, which I thought a very high price at the time, but I find that is the average price on Abebooks too. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled in op shops from now on!