badgerbag: Young Ada Lovelace with a book called Advanced Calculus. (fierce)
badgerbag ([personal profile] badgerbag) wrote in [community profile] girlycon2009-06-06 09:43 am

The Telltale Butterfly

At Squid's house last night I picked up a yo-yo, untangled its string, and tried it out. Her 10 year old daughter peppered me with questions. "How do you do it? Do you know tricks? Do you know how to walk the dog, do shotgun, do around the world?"

Something seemed odd to me here. Then it all made sense.

"Hey. Waaaait a minute. Have you just been reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great?"

"Yes! What! How did you know that?"

The yo-yo was a Duncan Butterfly! The names of the tricks she asked about are the same ones Sheila's friend Mouse did in the book. Since the 10-year-old couldn't even make the yo-yo do its basic up and down or wind the string, it didn't seem like she would have seen her parents do those tricks. Come to think of it I've never seen a child of this generation operate a yo-yo correctly.

For the record I can sleep a yo-yo and walk the dog and sometimes Shotgun if I'm lucky! The Sheila the Great book made me practice yo-yoing more for a little while. I loved the way she lied, the horrible slumber party and its slam book, and the newspaper gossip column Sheila wrote at camp!
maevele: (Default)

[personal profile] maevele 2009-06-06 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG, i had forgotten all about that book.

Totally putting that one on hold at the library. I loved that book!!
emandink: (sexybooks)

[personal profile] emandink 2009-06-08 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG, I love that book! *runs to add it to bookmooch wishlist*