It wasn't the first chapter book she had read us but it was the first one she stopped reading in the middle. One day we were listening to a story about a cupid on a staircase that had lost its head and a little girl who was a witch, the next day we were starting something else entirely. I was so disappointed, I had really been into the book about the little witch girl and the missing cupid head.
I checked the library but the book wasn't there so 4th grade me gave up but she never ever forgot the story, she did however forget the name of the book. Every now and then for years I would think about the story of the little witch and the mystery of the missing cupid head and wonder how the story ended. Like any good reader I can't stop reading a good book until I get to the end, unfortunately for me at the time I wasn't the captain of my reading boat so the story was left unfinished.
Then one day years and years later I was browsing the marked down section in a book store and I came across a book called "The Headless Cupid" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. After reading the back cover summary I knew I had found my unfinished story and immediately bought it, did I care it was a chapter book for kids and I was way past being a kid and didn't yet have a kid? Hell no, this was the unfinished story my readers brain had been taking me back to all these years.
I re-read and finished the book, it wasn't the best ending ever as I had imagined all these years BUT maybe it would have been to 4th grade me. I'll never know. I do know the reason Mrs. Darcy had to stop reading the book was because some parents had complained about it's witch related content. I'm not sure how I know this, it's just one of those things your kid brain picks up on even though no one told me.
Do you have an unfinished story?
Kelli
i don't....usually when i stop reading it's for a reason (the book sucked) and i have no desire to go back and find out.
ReplyDeleteHooray for Terry Pratchett quotes! I had an unfinished book that I tracked down after years of wondering. It was a historical fiction, something about a young woman who gets married to an older man her family had promised her to, but it turns out he's not what he seems and it's a bad marriage, and then some kind of political turmoil or bloodshed (that I didn't care very much about because I was like 12 or 13 - romance!), and finally she ends up with someone more worthy. I actually just tracked it down again to see if I could (it's hard when you don't remember the title or author or character's names. I'm surprised I found it!). Shadow of the Moon
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you found it after all those years! How crazy. I would have been excited too. I hate anything unfinished. Even if a book is sucking, I have to finish it. It would bug me forever not knowing the ending.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found it! That would be so frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an unfinished one.
So glad you found the book! I don't remember any unfinished books but it would have bugged me too if I didn't know the ending.
ReplyDeleteWhat fate that you found that book! I've left World War Z left unfinished but that was real recent. I can't remember anything from my child left unfinished.
ReplyDeleteHey there! So glad to see you round these parts again! I have tons of unfinished books. If it doesn't hold my interest I stop reading and I always kind of regret it!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that she stopped in the middle because parents complained. Today, she probably wouldn't have even been able to start it because of that reason.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so cool you found the book! As for me, the most recent unfinished book is The Journalist and the Murderer. I have no problem letting go of a book I'm not interested in or don't like.
There are so many stories that teachers read from childhood that I love! Never had an unfinished one though! So cool that you found it later in life!
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