Quotable

"There is a place called Egypt," she said. "I know nothing of that place. I wish I could tell you kids about Egypt. Forgive me for not knowing more. But, if you care to listen, I will tell you everything I know about the colour blue."

And so we heard about the colour blue.

"Blue is the colour of the Pacific. It is the air we breathe. Blue is the gap in the air of all things, such as the palms and iron roofs. But for blue we would not see the fruit bats. Thank you, God, for giving us the colour blue.

"It is surprising where the colour blue pops up," continued Daniel's grandmother. "Look and ye shall find. You can find blue squinting up in the cracks of the wharf at Kieta. And you know what it is trying to do? It is trying to get at the stinking fish guts, to take them back home. If blue was an animals or plant or bird, it would be a seagull. It gets its sticky beak into everything.

"Blue also has magical powers," she said. "You watch a reef and tell me if I am lying. Blue crashes onto a reef and what colour does it release? It releases white! Now how does it do that?" ...

"A final thing, children, and then I will let you go. Blue belongs to the sky and cannot be nicked, which is why the missionaries stuck blue in the windows of the first churches they built here on the island."

Mr Watts did that now familiar thing of opening his eyes wide as if waking from a sleep. He walked over to Daniel's grandmother with an outstretched hand. The old woman gave hers for him to hold then he turned to the class.

"Today, we have been very lucky. Very lucky. We have received a handy reminder that while we may not know the whole world, we can, if we are clever enough, make it new. We can make it up with the things we find and see around us. We just have to look and try to be as imaginative as Daniel's grandmother."

from Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

The city library here has about 1000 novels in English in their collection. It sounds like a lot, but when compared to what is available to me at my library in Kalamazoo, it is a small, small number. And a nice number. It is a browse-able number. I've never heard of Lloyd Jones or this book but its cover and description enticed me and I am really enjoying it. There are more books by non-American authors and that is fun to explore, too.