A couple weeks ago I was reading The Tiny Wish, by Lori Evert. I love her books. She compines imaginative storytelling with gorgeous pictures to create truly magical books. This particular book involves an overly friendly goat that keeps ruining Anja's chances of winning hide an seek. Think, Mary Had a Little Lamb. Except with a goat.
Anja, in an attempt to finally win the game, wishes she was small, and her wish is granted. Suddenly, blades of grass are as tall as trees, she rockets down a bank on a pinecone, and she rides the rapids on a bark boat. She meets a squirrel, a duck, and a rabbit along the way, and she sees this amazing stuff called cottongrass. It looks like a truffula tree and a dandelion had an...encounter, and joined forces to make magical fluff.
I had to look it up after storytime, and guess what, it's real. (Cue squee sound!) I don't know why I've never heard of it. Apparently it grows here in the United States and not just in Scandinavia, but it doesn't grow here, here in the United States, because it likes bogs, and I live in an expletive desert. So, as of two weeks ago, I have added seeing cottongrass to my bucket list. Preferably in Scandinavia.
Just look at it. Itty bitty truffula trees.
