This weekend, on a whim, I picked up my old hardcover of "The Book of Three" and re-read it after 23 or so years. The next day I read "The Black Cauldron", the next book in the Prydain Chronicles. It was strange to revisit these books after so long, especially when they made such an impression on me back in 5th grade.

I was saddened to learn that the author of the Prydain books, Lloyd Alexander, passed away back in May. I somehow missed the news. In a 1970 article on humor, written for The Horn Book Magazine, Alexander wrote: “Humor can help us accept our transiency, our mortality — in which all men are truly equal — and give us the courage, and the grace, to live reasonably and compassionately.”

I'll continue re-reading the rest of the Chronicles, and pass them along to my daughters.