A Girl Named Zippy

A few years ago, I put this book on my list of books to read because I was interested in the subtitle, "Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana." Having worked in the Admissions Office of Purdue University, I prided myself on having heard of every small town in Indiana and was curious about the book. This memoir by Haven Kimmel is fantastically funny, and I enjoyed every word of it!

Because he says it better than I could, let me quote a reviewer, Lawrence Naumoff, from the back cover of the book: "The prose in this book is lovely and wise and witty and sings as beautifully as 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow,' but it seems to have been written by Dorothy's wild and irreverent sister, the one you never saw in the movie, the one who locked Dorothy outside when the tornado was coming, sold Toto, set fire to the Scarecrow, ate the flying monkeys for lunch, and painted all the blacktop roads in Mooreland, Indiana, the colors of the rainbow, the colors of imagination and heart and laughter." (Corny--but perfect!)

Haven Kimmel is a couple of years older than me, and while I didn't grow up lower class or with a chain-smoking father, so much of what she writes about is familiar--the freedom to ride your bike anywhere, miniature Avon lipsticks, interviewing your family with a portable tape recorder, and listening to Shaun Cassidy songs. I wasn't much like "Zippy" as a child, but she's the girl I always wanted as a friend--daring and fun! This is a funny and nostalgic memoir of growing up in a small town in the 1970s told from a refreshingly innocent child's point of view. I laughed all the way through it!