March 21, Saturday night -- Reading Richard Hughes

At the request of a convalescing patient
My good friend and author of A Prayer for Burma, reading aloud the last few pages of A High Wind in Jamaica, by Richard Hughes. It's about an ocean voyage as experienced by seven young children, set in the early 1800's. I began reading this book weeks ago, but found it so absolutely delightful -- the author is able to get into the minds of children so completely, and conveys their thoughts with such charm and wit -- that I made myself put it down until I really needed something fun. The premise of the book is the beauty of innocence (and at the end, the hazard of innocence) and that children have no background for what should scare them, so that, when truly scary things do happen, like being kidnapped by pirates or getting caught in a hurricane, they simply make the best of it. The book is so dead on: I'd forgotten that kids feign ignorance to avoid awkwardness or that an armpit can be a fairy cave.