What Kindergarten teacher isn't drawn to a book with "alphabet" in the title? I'll admit it. That's why I bought the book this past weekend at the Green Valley Bookfair (a wonderful place to spend an afternoon, btw.). It's a tiny little book, but it is packed with a thought provoking idea: what would you do if you only had less than a month to live. Well, if you are Ambrose Zephyr, a man obsessed with making A-Z lists, you'd try to pack in one more and revisit your favorite A-Z places (like a top ten list) in 26 days. Seriously, that's what he does and his amazing wife, Zipper, goes along.
Richardson's style of writing is loose and free form, almost like a poem in many places. I loved both characters and my heart broke for them as they realized that they only had a month left together.
Books like this one really force you to think about what YOU would do if you only had a month to live. I'm not sure what I would do. If my girls were in school, I guess I'd spend those days driving them places and helping with homework and making lunches. Ambrose and Zipper did not have kids, though. They did walk away from their jobs, which I would do, but even that would be hard. To leave a group of 5-6 year olds who wouldn't quite understand. But I would, because Rob and the girls are my life. And I'd want to spend as much of my last days with them as possible. I guess that's really what Ambrose was doing, in his own way. He was revisiting the places that meant the most to him and Zipper. We learned a lot about them and their love story along the way, too. It really was a touching story.
I'll leave Zipper's reaction at the end as a mystery for now. Suffice to day, she's a much stronger woman than I will ever be, that's for sure.
Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie
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