An Extraordinary Correspondence

Hoo boy, look at the bags under those eyes. I guess this is what I have to look forward to in my old age. But that is a story for another time.

Today's story is Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock. I read it by assignment from S, after quite the run around in my local library. Finally though, I managed to get my hands on it, and I read it yesterday while the 6th graders did a verb worksheet and read their books for Battle of the Books. Did you have Battle of the Books, S? We did, and we were allowed to pick partners, but not groups, so my partner was my best friend at the time (also named Sara, but with no H) and we were forced to team up with the two most rude, rambunctious non-readers in our class, we two being the most polite, calm readers. We still could have won, except that holding down a trivia game with half your team refusing to participate can only get you so far, really.

But, once again, I digress.

Griffin, an artist, receives a letter from a woman named Sabine, whom he has never met, but it seems that she is very familiar with his work. So familiar in fact that she seems to know his process. She knows that he has darkened the sky on a finished piece, that in the original sketch it is a cup and not a wine glass in another, and that on a third he a sketched a bird in the bottom corner which was erased and obliterated. How does she know?

This is a fun and beautiful story about the lonesomeness of art and finding a soul mate, that one person who understands, who can see the real you. Or is it? I enjoyed it thoroughly, in spite of the cliffhanger ending. It's only fault is (dare I say it?) it's too short! I'm going to have to do the same run around with my library to get the sequel.

I thought that if the students saw me reading a book, they would be more inclined to read theirs. This was not the case. Ah well. I guess you know the story of the bags under my eyes after all.