Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine is the first book I remember reading. Again, a gift from, I suspect, my grandmother, Mimi, the book felt like it was about me.

Sam is a little girl who lives in an isolated house on an island with her beloved father, who is a sailor and often away from home. (Sam’s mother is dead.) I was a little girl who lived in an isolated house on an island with my parents; my beloved father, then an emergency room doctor, was often away from home. My mother was fully occupied with my two baby sisters, leaving me feeling as alone as Sam, although I know as an adult that there’s no comparison.

Sam’s best friend is Bangs, a black cat with yellow eyes, and they often lay in pools of sunlight on the floor of their home, making up stories together – “moonshine,” as Sam’s father calls it – Bangs talking to Sam as much as Sam talked to Bangs. My black cat with yellow eyes, Mary – named after my most beautiful aunt Mary – curled up with me in the squares of light that crept across the floor of my lonely attic room, as I whispered stories in her ear, and she whispered stories in mine. The illustration of Bangs looked like Mary; and I could see myself in the illustrations of Sam, funny clothes, pinched face, wayward hair…

Sam also has a friend, Thomas, who lives down the road. I had a friend, Markie, whose grandfather lived down the beach, and we often met on the beach to play.

But Sam tells Thomas stories, about dragons and kangaroos, about her mother who is a mermaid and lives on the rocks near the point. Thomas believes Sam’s stories are true, and takes off on his bike, alone, to find the mermaids, unaware of a looming storm. Bangs, unhappy that Sam’s moonshine has put Thomas in danger, sets out into the storm after Thomas. As the day grows darker, even Sam’s moonshine can’t keep her from recognizing the consequences of what she’s done.

Gosh, I love this book. I wore my copy to pieces as a child. The illustrations are gorgeous, pen, ink, and wash, in soft greys and underwater greens like the island where we lived then. And the expression on Sam’s face when she realizes that she has sent Bangs into danger – oh, and Thomas, too – still sends chills down my spine.

No wonder it won a Caldecott Medal in 1967 for its illustrations.

Fun fact: the author and illustrator of my favorite picture book, Evaline Ness, was at one point married to Eliot Ness. Yes, that Eliot Ness.

Small world.

What’s the first book you remember reading? Why do you remember it?