Late to another party

This was a fun one, though. And I can't say I wasn't invited before. It was just not a good time for reading, for me, when this book came out in 2002. I had two little zippers of my own at that point whose incredibly precious baby pictures may someday grace the covers of sweet and ironic and telling memoirs. God forbid.

Best thing about this book: Voice. Grownup Zippy, has an exquisite storytelling voice that links her with her childhood self. It has the same experimental self-assuredness that S demonstrated tonight on our walk, when he read a sign about a lost watch on the creekside trail and told me "Someone probably picked it up and hid it somewhere so she can't find it."

In A Girl Named Zippy, we see things that the childlike voice of Haven Kimmel never says -- and those are the things that are funny and sad and sweet. It's an irony like a green apple; it bites in a very lovely way.