She and I would like to thank him

Today is the birthday of E.B. White. You may know him as the author of Charlotte’s Web, or The Elements of Style, a book that was first introduced to me in high school English, and then on more than one required textbook list in my college days. That book is so consice and complete that I refer to it still today. I have a copy on my desk at home and a copy on my desk at work.

Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite stories as a young girl. It still is today. My favorite though, from Mr. White et al, is The Trumpet of the Swan. That book stands a notch above Charlotte and my other two beloved childhood books, Misty of Chincoteague, and of course, Stormy, Misty’s Foal. All Newbery Medal winners.

The Trumpet of the Swan hooked me on reading. I felt protective over Louis, born without a voice, and I worried about him just as his father did, and I connected with the young boy, Sam, because I too wanted to help Louis through his handicap. The book was a page-turner of compassion and loyalty, of the triumph of positive thinking and hard work over hardship.

More important than getting wrapped up in the story was that I discovered in those pages a love of reading. I remember one line from the book still, Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan. I remember how I felt when I read that line, how I heard a trumpet and could see the darkness. I remember being transported. And even though I hadn't once actually heard a Trumpeter Swan, I remember agreeing as I read those words, I too liked nothing better in the world than that sound.

I cried when I finished the book, unsure for a moment how to go on without Sam and Louis. My mother suggested that I didn't have to, that I could re-read the book. And so I did.

To this day, any time I hear a brass horn, I fondly recall a young goose named Louis with a chalkboard around his neck and perseverence in his heart, and a little girl named Alison who, through his story, fell in love with words and reading.

Thank you Mr. White.