When I heard today that author Catherine Woolley died this weekend at age 100, I had to write a short tribute to her in Test Pattern.
She never married or had children, but she wrote 87 books and entranced generations of readers with her many children's series, including the Ginnie and Geneva series. I write about how every time I put a pillowcase on a pillow, I think of how "Ginnie and Geneva" taught me to tuck the pillow under my chin and pull the case around it that way. The girls did it and won a party game against the boys that way in one of the books -- ah, for the days when party games involved making beds, not Grand Theft Auto.
My friend Stephanie visited Catherine Woolley some years ago, when she was 92 (Ms. Woolley was 92, not Stephanie!). She tells of how charming and gracious she was, and how Stephanie smartly identified that Woolley must like olives, because she passed that love on to the characters in the Ginnie books. And she signed Stephanie's books and wrote her a darling note thanking her for the visit.
As I write in Test Pattern, books have such an effect on children -- I can still remember exactly where the Woolley books were shelved in my childhood library. I hope that if I have children of my own, they love books and libraries with a passion, too. With the Harry Potter craze going on, I feel kind of good about the possibilities.
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