V is for Valentine; W is for Wallace
V is for Valentine’s Day, my other favorite holiday. Like Halloween, I like the decorations associated with it: cupids, hearts, doves, flowers. I like the love poetry and the nice valentine’s cards, not the vinegar ones. I associate it with the goddess Venus more than St. Valentine performing secret marriage ceremonies or Lupercalia with its runners and goat skins. I’ve always thought of it as a day to take time to appreciate love, beauty and grace.
W is for Hilary Knight’s Where’s Wallace – the picture that predated Where’s Waldo quite a bit. Knight did the Eloise series. The premise is a bored orangutan keeps escaping from the zoo to have adventures. The zookeeper dutifully goes to hunt for him, while tacitly enjoying the outings. There are several other characters who pop up on each page. I like the cat, she has a lot of personality. The artwork is good and there are lots of gentle jokes besides the seeking game. This isn’t that good a picture of it.
