David Bruce

The Funniest People in Books, Volume 2 David Bruce

This book contains 250 anecdotes, including these:1) Isaac Asimov's parents believed that he ought to go to school when he had learned to read. Therefore, his mother lied about his age. He was five but had to be six to go to school, so she added a few months to his age. Not until the third grade, when Isaac was asked his date of birth, did school officials discover the error. Isaac performed well in elementary school-he used to read all his textbooks during the first week of school, with the result that he frequently skipped a grade because he already knew the material the teacher was teaching. Another thing that contributed to Isaac's education was the public library-actually two public libraries, since he lived on the boundary line separating them. He frequently visited both the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library, often reading the books on his way back from the library and so failing to recognize his friends on the sidewalk. Mr. Asimov, of course, became a renowned author, and he once wrote, "During my childhood as a member of an ambitious but very poor immigrant family, I did my reading and obtained nine-tenth of my learning in the public library. It frightens me to think what I might have become-and what I might have failed to become-without one." 2) Betsy Byars, the author of many books for children, has received many letters from her readers. One of her favorite letters says, "All of us have to write to a real live author. Please write and tell me you're alive, or I will have to write a poem." Another says, "I was reading THE BURNING QUESTIONS OF BINGO BROWN and I came to the word brassieres, and I didn't know what that was and I raised my hand and asked the teacher. You could have saved me a lot of embarrassment if you had just said bras." 3) When Yoshiko Uchida, author of Journey to Topaz, was a little girl growing up in California, she faced a lot of prejudice. As a member of the Girl Reserves, she was supposed to be photographed for the local newspaper along with the other Girl Reserves, who were Caucasian. The newspaper photographer tried to take the photograph without young Yoshiko, but one of her friends saw what the photographer was attempting to do, so she told Yoshiko, "Stand by me," locked arms with her, and made it impossible for Yoshiko to be left out of the photograph.