Every Sunday, the New York Times Book Review section runs an author Q-and-A. The questions are often probing; the answers, intriguing.
Yesterday’s was also local. And for me, it was personal.
Cathleen Schine
Cathleeen Schine — Staples High School graduate, and best-selling author of novels like The Three Weissmanns of Westport — was the subject.
To the question “What book should everybody read before the age of 21?” she responded:
“The Phantom Tollbooth. Our teacher read it to us in 4th grade. It changed my life. Words are real!”
She’s right. Too bad though that she did not give her teacher — Burr Farms Elementary School’s immensely talented, much loved, died-way-too-early Annette Fournier — a shout-out by name.
How do I know?
I was in that class too.
(Click here for the entire interview. Hat tip: Fred Cantor)