Booky

The world is a weird and wonderful place.

There is a children's book series called "Booky" (three books entitled: That Scatterbrain Booky, With Love From Booky, and As Ever, Booky). Written by the late great by Bernice Thurman Hunter, the books are about a girl growing up in depression-era Toronto and all the crazy adventures she has. It's written with such wonderful humour and also paints a very detailed portrait of the city in that time (important to note though, this is a good story first and foremost, history lesson second). I loved these books.

They were first read to me in middle school. I studied French immersion, and for one period a day (or every other day, I can't quite remember) we would have English class. Taught by Ellen (I never knew her last name), this class was the highlight of my day because she adored creative writing and we got to spend the time making up our own stories, binding our own books etc. You can probably see why I was rather fond of it (not to dismiss my French class where we also got the chance to write creatively, I am still immensely thrilled of my French novel entitled "Le Violin qui joue au Tennis").

The Booky books sparked my imagination, and even though I haven't read them in years, the images are still as fresh in my mind as they were back when I was 10.

. . .
The world is a weird and wonderful place.
. . .

On Monday I did a photo shoot for a magazine. It was my first "real" photoshoot with a wardrobe girl, props assistant, even a film crew filming behind the scenes footage . . . and a makeup artist. I shall go into more detail about the whole crazy process when the article is posted, but for now we've established the scene.

I can kind of understand why celebrities become good friends with their hair and makeup person. You spend hours in that chair, and they do everything to make you feel at ease. There is something very nurturing about a makeup artist. So imagine if you had your hair and makeup done every day. You'd probably get pretty close.

Anyway, my makeup artist was just lovely, and she was genuinely curious about my whole writing for children thing (the people who are normally photographed for this particular article tend to be actresses and musicians, not so much authors). And the reason she was particularly interested . . . and here's the connection people . . . is that it turns out that she is the granddaughter of Bernice Thurman Hunter. So she was very familiar with the world of children's books, having watched her grandmother give readings etc.

BUT.

Even cooler.

SHE is the girl they photographed for the cover of the Booky books.

Yes.

I was getting my makeup done. . . by BOOKY!

And yes it was so totally thrilling to have all these people taking care of me, getting to wear designer clothes and heels five inches high. Yes I felt rather glamorous having my photograph taken (and the photographer is just amazing, again when I write at length about the experience I'll post a link to his website and you'll see) and being interviewed etc.

But seriously . . .

My makeup artist was that girl I'd stared at on the cover for hours on end. The one who I pictured in my head when reading the books. And honestly, that probably was the coolest part of the whole thing.

Yup the world is a weird and wonderful place.