"truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age."

In every child the Cosmos is born anew, and Alice O. Howell in the Beejum Book has a way of returning the favor. In Beejumstan, eternal truths rebirth into moments fresh and young. So many different people inside of each of us, all examining the world, wondering, needing, fearing. All children know this, and in Beejum they greet these inner selves, look them over, and come to see them in others. I read the book with my youngest son -- he a page, me a page -- and the cahoots between us has never really left. In an age of hurried children of all ages, where movies are breathless blockbusters and bestsellers genre, where company is the TV show in pieces trying to fit itself between the long commercials, the Beejum Book is the rare moment of the inner voice. Time and differences fall away, and in your loneliness, you remember you're never alone. Saying that here, typing it out in our cynical world, it sounds trite, loses its meaning. But what is more important to say and share with each other as we journey through life? Alice O. Howell says the important things in a way that we can all hear them. She turns the difficult over playfully, joyfully, without fear; she probes it, puts it on steamships and trains, wonders at all its facets, dresses it in flop ears, thumps its tail. She takes your child-hand in her child-hand to see all things anew -- as "truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age."