Happy New Year: Questions for the Future

(Image courtesy of dullhunk)

Happy New Year! In thinking about 2011, I’m struck by all  the long standing questions that were answered.  For example, will Muammar Gaddafi ever lose power? (Yes, and his life, too). Will Osama Bin Laden ever be found? (Yup, and killed, too. I’m sensing a theme here). Other answers were to more personal questions, like will I ever write (and by that I mean finish) a novel? Yes!  And no one died in the process!

Ever since I was a little kid, one of the things that’s fascinated me about the concept of the future is the things that might happen that I don’t know about yet. I wondered what I would be when I grew up, whether I would get married or have children, and where I would live. I knew that my future self would have the answers to these questions.  

I don’t believe that anything is destined or meant to be, so I knew that the actions I took would generate the answers. But I still really wanted to be able to know the things that my future selves would know. Some of my childhood questions have been definitively answered for me.  The answers to other have shifted over the years, so that the only response possible is like the one that comes out of the Magic 8 Ball—ask again later.

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions.  So instead of sharing a list of things I want to do in 2012, I’m going to be sharing the questions that I’d love to see answered this new year.  They'll be spread them out over the weeks. Some are questions related to interests of mine, like books, true crime, and pop culture. Others are more general. A few are personal.

I'm also going to share my predicted answers. At the end of the year, I’ll tally up which of the questions have been answered, and whether my present self was right. It feels a little like a competition between the me of 1/1/2011 and the me of 1/1/2012, and I have no idea who to bet on. Creepy.

The Questions:

Quest Book: SugarPink Rose

If I ever find myself in one of those hypothetical fires where, immune to the threat of smoke inhalation, I have time to calmly take stock and decide which few, precious items to rescue—well, Sugarpink Rose will be one of my saves.

It’s a feminist children’s book, given to me by my mother’s best friend when I was little.  I didn’t think it was anything other than a cool story growing up.  But somehow, through luck, I hung on to it over the years and dozens of moves since it was given to me. I love it for nostalgic reasons, but I also love it because it’s a book that teaches kids about gender equality through a tight story and gorgeous illustrations.  Finally, I love it because I have the original, and it’s not widely available (I know, totally snobby and silly, but there you go).  

To my happy surprise, I found out that SugarPink Rose is a book that other people obsess over, and try to track down. You know, a book that you’ve loved as a child, and try to find again as an adult, but just can’t? (Incidentally, the ALA has a great YALSA listserv where librarians search their collective brain for answers to these stumpers.)  I’m dubbing these lost books Quest Books (superfluous capitalization because I can.)

In Googling Sugarpink Rose, I found posts by several people who were trying to remember this book, and/or wanted to buy it.  It was a successfully answered Yahoo Question.  In the comments thread on a Guardian article about feminist children’s books, "Gr1ffe" responded: “I had that book about the elephants with the girl elephants were pink and had to live in an enclosure the boys were grey and got to play in the mud when I was little! I LOVED it - especially the bit where the girl elephants took off their pink bows and booties and jumped in the mud!  As I remember it got quite tatty after being bitten and chewed and read and reread as kids book do. I don't know what happened to my copy either but I wish I could remember what it was called or find another copy as I wanted to read it to my children when I have some!” ("Gr1ffe," check your inbox!)

Quest Books—they’re this brain itch of loss and love that can’t be scratched. Do any of you have a book that you’ve read as a child, that you’ve tried to remember the title or author of for years, and maybe even tried to research? I’ve had two Quest Books, once of which I’ve found.

The Devil's Children and An Evil Doll