Dear Wally #44 Good Book? Baby's Bellybutton

Dear Wally-
Read any good books lately?
-Marcy (Stone Ridge)
Dear Marcy:
Like many caught up in the hurly-burly of life, I long to have the quiet time to drop into a red velvet smoking jacket and revisit the classics. That said, and being the parent of a toddler, my ‘A’ list is topped with an efficient, portable stand-out. An inflatable life donut in a sea of sinking mediocrity, this book works for all ages. Let’s meet the soon-to-be-classic, intensely popular, “Where’s Baby’s Belly Button?” by Karen Katz.
This future member of the literary canon’s title is more a rhetorical question than a literal one. In this gripping, intensely short work, a solitary child (our most innocent, fragile member of society and the one the author suggests needs the most protection and nurturing from proverbial village it takes to raise him/ her/ errrr, mankind?) endures the frustration of ignorance, the heartbreak of adult betrayal, the exhaustion of exploration, the sweet nectar of self-discovery and finally the elation of vindication. The narrative turns on themes of redemption, awareness, modesty and perseverance that are as delicately intonated and intricate as a honeybee’s waxy knees.
It’s quite a ride, this tale- one your child may seem to never tire of hearing. And understandably…Big questions get answered and we as readers are able to leave the experience with a sense of fulfillment, satisfaction and un-slakable thirst to reread (and reread again) for deeper meaning. (It’s like peeling an onion, though every layer still tastes like onion). Dickens himself chronicled the human condition as deftly in but two of his works (I can’t remember which two) and comparatively, his attempts mostly leave one feeling like they have just eaten a dirt sandwich. Nutritional maybe at some elemental level, but hardly worth the prodigious effort. Yet Dickens and Katz will be shelf-mates on the great mantle of posterity, mark my words.
In the book’s ostensible plot, ‘baby’ (yours?) can’t find her belly button. Upon lifting a small flap of interactive cardboard masquerading as a shirt, the belly button is revealed. The ‘Ah Ha’ moment you don’t expect pays off every time. Your baby laughs, you laugh and all feels right in the universe.
But grab a hankie and a headlamp. Venture beneath that cardboard flap and you get to the kernel of what this author is really saying. To wit, things in this life are not always so obvious. If one wants to know where a belly button is, one has to put in the work. One needs to feel the burn of curiosity, the hobble of despair, else nothing in life will have genuine meaning or value. Life is a zero-sum game, she suggests. To use a tired cliché, you can’t know good unless you have known bad. What is the elective exhilaration of ice cream without the sour gum rub of mandated Brussel Sprouts? Etc etc.
For Katz, this is a lesson that can’t be taught soon enough. (For ages 1 and up!) The author , rightly so, hammers the point home early by posing the question other ways. Where’s baby’s nose? Where’s baby’s feet, where is baby’s head? and so on. (and so on) (and so on).
If you fall for the clever trap that this is just about a banal belly button romp, you need to get back to your literary analysis basics. The revered Algerian semiotic deconstructionist philosopher Derrida, for one, has produced much fontanel-bulging information on symbols (like belly buttons) if you dare to go there. But beware, take on this literary avoirdupois and it might be a long trip back to the surface!
‘Button’ serves it up fresh in 7 compact pages. Each page is made of water (and puke) resistant cardboard, brightly illustrated and replete with a tenacious, anti-rip hinge mechanism. I personally have read it at least 4,000 times and there’s been no hint of degradation (nor, alas, binder rot). I tried to toss it in the fire (when my baby wasn’t looking) and lo, it’s fireproof! I ran it over with my tractor and my baby wiped the tire marks right off with a tear-soaked diaper. I’ve tried drilling holes in it with the post hole digger and have broken as many drill bits. Even 'accidentally' flinging it out the window at 65 mph didn’t dispatch it. So you can feel good about your investment. Make a little space next to ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and get this in your summer beach bag!
-Wally
Ps- It also makes a nice sand scoop or sandcastle drawbridge!

Got a question for our columnist Wally Nichols or just want to buy his copy of ‘Where’s Baby’s Belly Button?’ without putting your credit card info online at Amazon.com? Contact him at cwn4@aol.com

Got a question for our columnist or just want to buy his copy of ‘Where’s Baby’s Belly Button?’ without putting your credit card info on Amazon.com? Contact our columnist at cwn4@aol.com