Mom Pom, I Can Do Anything!

The opening sentence or paragraph of great books are well-remembered and often quoted. When in college, I took a British Literature class, and we spent at least one whole day dissecting and discussing the opening line from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

And with that one line, one of the world’s best loved novels is off and running. As a child, my favorite chapter book, Karen, left me, not with a memorable opening line, but rather a closing line that has remained with me all these years.

“Mom!” Karen was pulling my arm. “Mom Pom,” she called for my attention.

“What is it, you wonderful child, you!”

“I can walk. I can talk. I can read. I can write. Mom Pom, I can do anything!”

There you have it, “Mom Pom, I can do anything.” I have repeated that line to myself, numerous times over the course of my lifetime. Sometimes it was because I’d accomplished something important, and I was proud of what I’d achieved. But other times, it simply serves as an inspiration for me. If young, fragile Karen Killilea, living with cerebral palsy since birth, can do it, so can I. And Karen’s strength bolstered my strength. I love that line and think of it often. And I love the book, Karen, that tells her story. It is my all-time favorite book.

Yes, Karen, is my all-time favorite, but I also have three other books that I’ve loved and reread over the years, and I’d like to share all four of them with you today.

One of my favorite books is a picture book I received for Christmas 1960, when I was only two years old, from an aunt and uncle. It’s a classic, Harry the Dirty Dog, written by Gene Zion. It was illustrated by Margaret Bloy Graham, who just happened to be Zion’s wife.

Oh, Harry. He didn’t want to get a bath so he buried the bath brush in his back yard and ran away on an adventure, getting dirtier and dirtier at each stop. By the time he went back home, he’d changed from a white dog with black spots, to a black dog with white spots. He was such a dirty dog his family did not even recognize him. He ran out to the back yard, dug up the bath brush and ran into his house, up the stairs to the bathroom. The family gives the strange dog a bath and soon realizes it’s Harry! And all’s well that ends well.

I enjoyed the story of Harry very much as a small child, but I think I've enjoyed and appreciated it even more as an adult. I enjoyed reading it to my children when they were little, sharing with them a book I loved as a child. And, it was my great pleasure, when I became a children’s librarian, to be able to read it in story times.

It’s a great book to read to young kids in story time because the story moves fast with just a sentence or two per page. And the illustrations are cute and comical, drawn simply in black and white; interestingly, it uses just two accent colors, yellow and green.

My copy of Harry the Dirty Dog is rag tag and almost worn out from being well loved and used for sixty years. It’s been drawn in, had pages torn, and for some reason, both of my girls signed their names on the last page. But I still have it and keep it proudly among my personal collection of picture books.

I have another picture book on my list of favorites, one that I checked out from my grade school library many times. Yes, my love of libraries started a long, long ago, in the small library in our school basement. Our “librarians” were mom volunteers. These moms were probably my inspiration for the volunteering I did in the libraries at my daughters’ grade schools many years later. Inspiration that led me down the path to becoming an actual librarian twelve years ago.

But I digress. Back to my favorite books and that second picture book, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Another classic, this one won the Caldecott Medal for best picture book in 1943.

I love the story Burton tells about this little house on a hill out in the country. “Her-story” as the covers tells us. Built for a big family in the days of horse and baggy, she begins her life as a much beloved family homestead. With each turn of the page, we see the little house go through season after season, and then year after year. Eventually, the country side begins to recede as progress and modern life creep closer and closer to the little house. Until finally, she is surrounded by and squeezed tight by a big city, skyscrapers and all.

Left abandoned, the little house is sad and lonely, until being saved by the great-great granddaughter of the man who first built the house. Picked up and moved out to a new piece of land in the country, the little house is spruced up and the new family moves in. And, “Once again she was lived in and taken care of.”

I love a happy ending. 😊 I also love the illustrations in The Little House. Looking again at the picture book, I think I’m as enchanted by Burton’s illustrations now as I was growing up. I love looking at the detail in them as the seasons and years go by, watching the changes and subtle differences in them from page to page. The country pictures are warm, comforting, and colorful, while the city pictures are stark and dark.

Yes, I love this book as much today as I did when I first read it. It’s a good book to share with older kids, kindergarten on up. They too will enjoy looking at the pictures, watching the changes and progression of the years, as well as be able to sit for the reading of the longer picture book. Not all Caldecott Winners hold up over the years, but this one does indeed.

When I was in grade school, not only did I love going to the library, but I waited eagerly for the book fairs held each year. In rolled the big silver carts, and when opened wide, they became mini-book stores filled with Scholastic books! My two favorite chapter books both came from said book fairs. Both are yellowing and a bit brittle, but I hold onto these books and the stories they contain as treasured memorabilia.

The next book on my list is the chapter book, Adopted Jane, by H. R. Daringer. Originally published in 1947, the paperback I bought was published in 1972, so I most likely read this book for the first time when I was in the 8th grade. Adopted Jane tells the story of Jane Douglas, an orphan girl being raised in an orphanage around the turn of the 19th century. Small for her age, with straight black hair cut short, Jane has been passed over for adoption for years by parents looking for cute babies or pretty little girls. The book never gives her exact age, but I believe her to be about 10-12 years old.

And then one summer, Jane gets two invitations for summer visits and off she goes on the train. Her first visit is with Mrs. Thurman, a wealthy single woman who lives in a big old house alone with Aggie and Abner, her household help. She is a proper, lovely woman who Jane immediately takes a liking to, someone she would like to grow up and be just like. There are lots neighborhood girls close to Jane’s age who she is introduced to and plays with. Including India Maud, who fast becomes Jane’s best friend. In four short weeks, Jane’s visit is over, but she has already formed a bond with those who welcomed her and cared for her at Mrs. Thurman’s.

Jane’s next visit is with the Scotts, a family who live on a farm out in the country. They have two teenage boys and a niece, Tish, who is spending the month with them as well. Insisting Jane call them Uncle John and Aunt Callie, Jane makes an almost immediate connection with this family as well. She’s never been on a farm before and is thrilled to be a part of farm life as well as a real family. Unfortunately, this visit gets cut short when she gets called back to the orphanage unexpectedly. Tish is so upset, she suggests Jane run away from the orphanage and live with her family when Tish goes home. But Jane knows she’s needed at the orphanage and heads home on the train the next morning.

Life goes back to normal for Jane once she’s back at the orphanage. It’s not a bad place, Matron takes good care of her charges and Miss Fink, who runs the nursery, always looks out for Jane as well. But, after experiencing the excitement and joy of two loving homes, orphanage life leaves Jane wanting more.

And then Matron receives two letters, one from Mrs. Thurman and another from the Scotts, and they both want to adopt Jane! The decision is Jane’s alone to make. Which family will she choose? I’m not going to spoil the ending for you in case you’d like to read the book or share it with a youngster dear to you. Our library no longer owns this book, but I checked and it is available as an inter-library loan via MeLCat. We don’t have an exact date yet, but borrowing books via MeL will be beginning soon.

I’m not sure I can properly remember or explain what drew me to Adopted Jane all those years ago. I liked that Jane was an admirable young lady, modest and humble. Her parents both died of typhoid fever when she was just eight months old, so she lived almost her whole life in the orphanage. And she was passed over for years by prospective parents because she was never perfect or pretty enough for them. It was finally Jane’s turn for some good luck. And for her to have two opportunities all at once to find a real home, seems like a fairy tale. And, it’s always fun to read a book with a happy ending: “You’re adopted Jane Douglas; you’re adopted!”

And also, I might add, I really like the simple sketches that illustrate this book. I realized, as I was browsing the book in preparation for writing this blog post, how familiar these drawings were to me. I remembered each and every one of them. They helped to draw me right back into the book and made Adopted Jane seem even more like an old friend.

Quick side note, I discovered a short while back that a life-long friend also has had a special place for Adopted Jane in her heart all these years, rereading the book from time to time. It’s not a real well-known book, so I was amazed and happy to hear that this book was special to Ann Marie as well. 😊

And that brings me back to Karen. It’s a true story told by her mom, Marie Killilea. Karen was born August 18, 1940; she was three months premature, weighed under two pounds and was nine inches long. She was given only a 20-40% chance of survival. But she hung on, moving from the hospital nursery to the pediatric floor where she stayed until she was able to go home.

Karen finally came home from the hospital when she was eight months old, weighing just eight pounds. After a few months, while she did grow in size, her parents, Jimmy and Marie, began to sadly realize Karen could not move on her own, she barely even wiggled. The family pediatrician diagnosed her with cerebral palsy, and visits to specialists began. One told them that children with CP, “have no mentality.” Another topped that with, “In China, they take such children up on top of a mountain and leave them.”

In 1941, Karen’s condition was considered untreatable, but the Killilea’s never gave up hope that Karen could lead a normal life. They visited doctor after doctor, 23 in all, till they finally met Dr. B, who would change Karen’s life. He felt she was above average in intelligence and that, with physical therapy, would begin to move and one day, even walk. There were no therapists in the Killilea’s hometown, so they learned to do Karen’s therapy themselves and would spend hours each day working with her.

And that is what I loved about this book, her parent’s determination to give her the life she deserved, to do everything in their power to help her succeed in life. This book is an amazing story of Karen, her parents, and her siblings. They gave their all to Karen, as well as her two siblings, and Gloria, whom they adopted as a teenager. They lived in a big house in a great neighborhood with tons of kids who often played at the Killilea’s. And they had pets, lots of them. This was a family faced with great challenges who met them head on with love and prayer. And they had fun, and they thrived. And Karen learned to walk, and talk, and read, and write. As she said, she could do anything.

(Two pictures I found from the Internet. The first is of author Marie Killilea and

the second is of the Killilea family.)

I recently purchased a new copy of Karen as my original paperback is in tatters and falling apart, a victim of frequent use and just being old. This reprint, published in 1983, includes a forward by author and mom, Marie Killilea. She states that Karen lives an independent life, has her own apartment and volunteers her time as a secretary for a very busy priest who runs a retreat house. As that information was from 1983, I did a quick Google search and read that Karen is still with us and is about to celebrate her 80th birthday. What a life she has led!

The library does not own Karen, but it, too, is available by inter-library loan via MeLCat. Additionally, it is available as an E-book via Hoopla as is the sequel, With Love from Karen. I highly recommend reading them both if you get the chance.

I have read many good books over the years, but these are four that made a very strong impression early on with me, and have resonated with me for years to come. I’m sure you have such favorites as well. As Louisa May Alcott once said:

Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.

I hope your summer is going well. It seems to be flying by all of a sudden.

Stay safe. And please wear your mask.

( I reposted this picture from a very talented librarian known as @letteringlibrarian

on Instagram.)