I grew up in a home full of books, and as a child I read fantasy and fairy tales almost exclusively. My mother’s books were fascinating, with their thick deckled pages and embossed illustrations providing a gateway to far-flung places I came to think of mine alone. She gave me the entire Oz series from her childhood, and my favorite, Rinkitink in Oz, is now on my own daughter’s bookshelf.

Hans Christian Andersen’s works, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Brownies at Work and Play, Just So Stories – I can still picture these books, and as I write this I am suddenly possessed of a desire to go into the attic and feel these volumes again.

I remember one day when my husband asked me, as a young mother, what I would like for Mother’s Day. I thought of my children, and I thought of my childhood books. “A pink pearl,” I said. Just like the pearl in Rinkitink in Oz. Sometimes I take it out and dream.

– Sig Nilsson