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Sweet handwritten inscription from a boy to his mom found in a used book from 1948

Aw, Henry was a sweetheart.

Photo credit: Canva, Reddit/ohthesarcasm

Old books hold all kinds of treasures.

Used books contain all kinds of treasures, from timeless tales to old illustrations to personalized elements that tell a story of their own. One of those stories posted to Reddit has people wondering about the details and creating their own backstories for a sweet boy and his mother.

A user posted a photo of a handwritten inscription in a book they found at a Boston thrift store—"an uplifting Christmas message from a son to his mother"—that reads:

"To my own and very dear mother I present this book on Christmas Day December, 1948 as one of my tokens of appreciation for all the love and kindnesses you have rendered unto me. Your son, Henry."

The poster added an additional note about the book that contained the inscription:

"Found in the book 'Milton Cross's Complete Stories of the Great Operas'—the front of the book actually has the owner's full name and home address in it, but unfortunately it's a very common name and an address in a major city, and I was not able to find out what happened to her or Henry."

People in the comments began creating their own stories about who Henry and his mom were and why he wrote the note the way he did:

"I know we don’t know how old Henry was, but to me this looks like an older child’s handwriting and reads like a tween trying his hardest to impress his mother with his poetic language and now I’m tearing up at work. 🥹"

"Could be, but it was also popular in the era to ironically use overly flowery language to comic effect, since old people of the time often did genuinely speak like that. which, if he's being playful with his wording, i think it's still just as endearing. she was probably one of few people in his life who knew him well enough to tell which one it was, lol."

"It’s reading, mom I’ve been working on my penmanship. Did I do good? Lol"

"Henry obviously broke a vase and doesn’t want to be punished!"

People also found themselves moved by Henry's thoughtfulness and how seeing his note all these decades later connects us all through time.

"Somehow when I started to read this I thought it was fairly recent, like a kid practicing their cursive the way my elementary did, but once I reached the year something in me, idk, sunk? Hit me? Gets weirder realizing it’s almost 80 years ago. Feels bittersweet and weirdly metaphorical that the act of love transcends the span of life."

"So beautiful that Henry’s love from 1948 reached out into the world again and we all felt it in 2024."

"When giving someone a book, it's also a gift to the world to write a fond note in it. Good job Henry and Henry's mom."

"Aww he loves his mama. It's really touching."

"I would cry if my kids gave me such a note attached to a gift, so simple and sweet."

In the digital age, handwritten notes have become rarer and rarer, which makes finding an inscription like this all the more special. Texts and emails are fine, but receiving a heartfelt message in someone's unique handwriting just hits on a whole other level. And when it's left in a book that someone chose especially for you, it's even more moving because it may touch others in the future the way Henry's note is touching people nearly 80 year later.

It's also so heartening to see such a sweet sentiment expressed so eloquently, especially from a boy at an age when a mother's love and kindness might easily go overlooked. Well done, Henry. Perhaps your note will inspire others to share their own gratitude to a loved one. (And as someone in the comments wrote, "Render Kindness" would make an awesome bumper sticker.)

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Family

They said no one would read a novel about dads — I wrote one anyway.

Nearly 80 percent of all books are bought by women

Evan Porter

The first time I sat down to write a fictional story (about 13 years ago), I wrote a screenplay jam-packed with stuff a 20-something year old guy thought was cool.

There was a bank heist gone wrong. Guns. Bad guys. Car chases. Explosions!

Since then I've become a father to two amazing girls, and for a long time my writing career was put on the backburner.

(Turns out, you suddenly have a lot less free time as a parent.)

But in early 2021, after many long months of COVID lockdown, I wanted to try writing something straight from the heart, something that better reflected who I am now — nostalgic, sentimental, both excited for and terrified of watching my girls grow up — and I wanted to try it as a novel.

So I came up with the idea of a bunch of dads trying (and hilariously struggling) to connect with their daughters at a weeklong summer camp retreat.

There was just one problem. 'Heartfelt novels by and about dudes' wasn't exactly a thriving literary genre.

There are plenty of books written by and mostly for men, of course.

But those are usually confined to genres like military or historical fiction, or SciFi. Basically, anything with weapons and/or spaceships and possibly murder.

Men also read somewhat prominently in biography and memoir.

But books about family and relationships and (gasp) love from a male perspective? That seemed to be fairly uncharted territory.

So where did that leave me and my idea to write a book that was funny and heartwarming and all about fatherhood?

I wasn't sure. But I knew the story I wanted to tell and I knew that I wanted to take great TV dads like Bandit from Bluey, Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, Carl Winslow from Family Matters, Alan Matthews from Boy Meets World and so many others — and see them represented on the page.

So I wrote the book anyway.


Holding an early draft of the manuscript in 2022Evan Porter

As I went along, I kept searching for more books like what I hoped to write. Generally, they were few and far between, but I was eventually heartened to find that they did exist.

Authors like Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby, Matthew Norman, and Richard Roper were doing amazing things in male-centered fiction that didn't involve guns and aliens, but rather focused on emotion and relationships and even romance.

Still, even with those guys blazing the trail, that didn't make things any easier when I started pitching my finished novel, Dad Camp, to literary agents.

A lot of them told me they just weren't sure what the market was for a book like mine. Who's going to read this? It seemed unfathomable that actual dads would read it, so surely it had to have crossover appeal to the childrens market, or it needed a strong romance element to draw in female readers.

Many even liked the story a lot but just didn't know how to pitch it to publishers.

It's easy to see why my book, Dad Camp, was a hard sell. Men just don't read in large enough numbers.

You can hardly go anywhere on the Internet without running into the "why don't men read" discourse.

That's because the facts are inescapable:

Around 80% of book sales come from women. Every study and survey and data set you can find shows that boys read less than girls starting in childhood and the gap only gets worse and worse as they get older.

Why don't men read more? Well, there are a lot of theories.

A lot of men report finding reading fiction to be a waste of time, that they have to be productive with their 'downtime' instead — which would explain why men are actually big readers of non-fiction, which is deemed more useful.

(Weirdly, that mindset doesn't seem to stop men from watching movies or television or spending tons of time gaming.)

Other theories say that men's brains just aren't wired as well for inhabiting the mind of different characters and empathizing with them.

And then there is the self-fulfilling prophecy of it all. Since men don't read, boys don't have as many good reading role models, and the cycle continues on and on.

The proven benefits of reading for men

Us dudes with our "linear thinking brains" like hard data, right? Well it's difficult to argue with the science behind reading fiction. It's extremely clear cut.

When you read fiction, you exercise your brain's Theory of Mind, or its ability to understand that other people are thinking and feelings and experiencing different things than you are.

People who read fiction frequently display more creativity, more empathy for others, and more skill in social relationships.

I'd like to see a non-fiction or self-help book that can achieve that.

And get this, some data even shows that readers live longer than non-readers!

So instead of spending a fortune on reducing your biological age and doing things like having young people's blood injected into your veins, just try picking up a $17.99 paperback novel.

In the end, I was lucky enough to find an agent and publisher that believed in Dad Camp as much as I did.

Novels on a bookshelfSeeing Dad Camp on shelves at the bookstore for the first time was a pretty special feelingEvan Porter

And I'm really excited that it's out there in the world finding its audience of, not just dads, but moms and daughters and anyone who knows or loves a dad.

One last point from my research that really stood out was that men are apparently extremely reluctant to pick up books from female authors — a perspective, you could argue, we desperately need!

I'd like to hope that, one day, my book could be something of a bridge, and show more men that it's actually good and fun to read about relationships and family and romance.

Once you cross that bridge, there's a whole world of amazing books and storytellers waiting for you — and the positive impact those stories have on your brain and well-being will be well worth the effort.

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Pop Culture

Teacher explains why he doesn't like the classic kid's book 'Rainbow Fish'

The story loved by millennials everywhere might have a flawed message.

Amazon

If all you remember of "Rainbow Fish" were those holographic scales, you're not alone.

Few children’s books are as deeply ingrained into the collective millennial psyche as “Rainbow Fish.” After all, what’s not to love about those oh-so sparkling rainbow scales and heartwarming lesson about how sharing leads to happiness far better than selfishness will.

Only, according to some…that’s not the story’s lesson.

In a video posted to his TikTok, Fifth-grade teacher Mr. Vương admitted that while the illustrations were, in fact, great, and the author probably had “good intentions, he still “didn’t like” the story behind this award-winning classic.

For those who never read the book, or perhaps forgotten, Vương explains that at the beginning, “Rainbow Fish is full of himself because when all the other fish wanted to play with him, he sort of swam past them and thought he was better. Then one of the fish asked for one of his scales and he refuses.”

This is where Vương feels the book missed the mark, since the book depicts drawing a boundary to be Rainbow Fish’s character flaw (more on that later).

“In my opinion, I think he has the right to do that because he doesn't have to give up part of himself or anybody,” Vương.

The real flaw, Vương argues, “was that he was not humble.”


@teamvuong Poor Rainbow Fish. #teachersoftiktok #teachersfollowteachers #teachertok #literacy #therainbowfish #readaloud ♬ original sound - Mr. Vương


Vương goes on to say that in the book, when Rainbow Fish said no, all the other fish decided not to play with him, which “made it more about how all the fish didn't accept him because he didn't give up his scales rather than them responding to his stuck-up behavior.”

Also in the book—the wise Octopus advises that Rainbow Fish overcome his pride and give up all but one of his scales to the other fish. He might no longer be the most beautiful fish in the sea, but he is finally happy. Thus bringing in the moral of the story of sacrificing vanity for peace.

“So he got acceptance…when he gave up parts of who he was…” Vương declares matter-of-factly.

Vương’s hot take seemed to resonate with a few other adults who thought the Rainbow Fish had lost its luster over time.

““Rereading it as an adult now, it made me angry. Little fish has the audacity to ask for a shiny scale, Rainbow Fish says no, so little fish goes and bad mouths him to all the other fish so they all turn on him and only become his friends when he gives up a part of himself,” one viewer wrote.

“I feel like the book had more of a ‘sharing is caring’ moral and just carried out the message in a weird way with the scales” another said.

One person even quipped, “…and now I know where I learned to be a people pleaser from. Thanks FYP.”

But still…the holographics scales are pretty neat…right? *cries in millennial*

It’s worth noting that regardless of his own personal opinion of the book, Mr. Vương still uses it to “teach about how to think critically about themes.”

“I opened up with what the theme was and then I read the story without telling them my opinion,” he says. “Then the kids made all these connections themselves and some of them looked at it through the lens of, ‘Oh it's selfishness.’ And some of them were like, ‘Wait, is he buying his friends?’”

Not only that, but the class had “really good discussions” about transactional relationships, as well as dissecting what the author's original intent might have been. They will also be creating their own alternate endings, “where the theme is not that you gotta, you know, pay for your friends,” as the last part of their assignment.

While not everyone might share Vương’s opinions on this kid’s book, we can probably all agree on his stance that “just because it has an award-winning sticker on it, it does not make it top-notch.”

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Joy

An 8-year-old snuck his handwritten book onto a library shelf. Now it has a 56-person waiting list.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel— written by "Dillon His Self"—captured the hearts of his local librarians and their patrons.

KTVB/YouTube

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel captured the hearts of his local librarians.

Writing a book is no easy task, even for adult professional writers. Many would-be authors dream of a day when their work can be found on library shelves, unsure if it will ever come.

But for 8-year-old Dillon Helbig, that day has already arrived—in truly unconventional fashion—thanks to his own determination to make it happen.

Dillon wrote his 81-page graphic novel, "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" (written by "Dillon His Self") in a hardcover journal with colored pencils over the course of a few days.

He even put a label on the back of the book that reads "Made in Idho" [sic] and put an illustrated spine label on it as well. Then, without telling anyone, he brought it to his local library in Boise, Idaho, and slipped it in among the books in the children's section.


The library Facebook page shared that it had officially added the book to the collection at the branch, writing, "Imagine our surprise yesterday when Dillon's mom called to tell us that her son had authored an entire book, shelved it at the Lake Hazel Branch, then announced to his family later that he had written a book and it could be checked out at the library."

The library also announced that Dillon's book had won the first-ever Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist—an award created in his honor.

Dillon told local news station KTVB that the book features him, his mom, Santa, a bomb, a portal and a giant carnivorous turkey. Because of course.

"I've been wanting to put a book in the library since I was five," Dillon told the station. Nearly half his life, in other words.

Dillon said there were a lot of librarians he had to sneak past with his book to surreptitiously put it on the shelf, but he did it.

"I'll always be sneaky, like how I get chocolate," he explained. Classic.

The adults on every front handled this kid's creativity and determination the best possible way. His mom called the library to let them know the book was there so it wouldn't get lost or taken.

And rather than just returning the book, the librarians actually put it into circulation.

"His parents were worried we would find his book and we would get rid of it," Lake Hazel Branch Library manager Alex Hartman told KTVB. "Which was an unfounded fear because if there's ever a place a book would be safe, it would be here."

The librarians loved Dillon's book.

“It deserves a spot on our library shelves,” said Hartman. “It’s a good story.”

At the time of this local news report, the book had a handful of people in line to check it out. But The New York Times reports that as of the end of January, the waiting list has grown to a whopping 56 people. If each person kept the book for the maximum four-week checkout period it would take four years to get to the people at the bottom of the list.

The experience has made Dillon decide to become an author, his mom said, and he even has some career goals laid out.

“I’m going to stop writing when I’m 40,” Dillon said. After that, he will switch to game creation. In the meantime, he has a sequel to his first novel in the works.

“My next book is going to be called ‘The Jacket-Eating Closet,’" he said, "based on actual events.”

Amazing. Kudos to Dillon for following his dream and making it happen, kudos to his mom for encouraging him and kudos to the librarians who saw an opportunity to support a child's creativity and ran with it.


This article originally appeared on 09.13.22

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