for my daughter

• Shirley
• Mary
• Miriam
• Julie
• Brooke
• Rebecca
• Isabella
• Clare
• Alice

for my son

• Brian
• Peter
• Edward
• Theodore
• Archie
• Michael
• Phillip
• William
• Daniel

• loose floorboards
• small, hidden doors (behind curtains, etc.)
• hidden compartments, drawers, and other hiding places
  • within books
  • the boards beneath beds as shelves for small objects
• tiny keys
• keyholes
• hidden carved inscriptions
• wooden boxes (locked)
• books with locked clasps
• things which may or may not have been lost in the room
• things shoved up under the bed

• backstage
• dusty attics
• libraries
• school after hours
• airplane cabins at night
• long hotel corridors
• empty lecture halls

• pinterest
• tumblr
• letterboxd
• goodreads

• Shalimar perfume
• sleigh rides
• whipped cream
• red roses
• feasts for days
• velvet mary-janes
• the Land of Sweets
• Cinderella (1965)
• pressed rouge
• gingerbread
• big glasses of milk before bedtime
• gloves and muffs
• Christmas markets

School supplies

• textbooks & study material
• campus map
• pencil case
• mechanical pencils (plus spare eraser refills)
• big eraser
• pens
• highlighters
• sticky notes
• memo pad
• lined notebook
• agenda/planner
• three-ring binder

Just in case

• small sweater
• lip balm
• hand sanitizer
• mini deodorant
• tampons

• holly
• knotholes
• fog or mist
• dusty attics
• jewelry boxes
• dollhouses with tiny furniture
• the scent of dead leaves & damp soil
• spiderwebs with water droplets across them
• discarded rings, pendants, etc., particularly in the forest

• bread & butter
• poached eggs
• orange juice
• hollandaise sauce
• neufchâtel
• chocolate chip pancakes
• waffles
• sausage links
• bacon
• french toast
• porridge
• muffins
• kippers

• Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare
• Alice in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll
• Alice Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll
• The Princess and the Goblin (1872) by George MacDonald
• The Oz books (1900-1920) by L. Frank Baum
• A Little Princess (1905) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Blue Bird (1908) by Maurice Maeterlinck
• Ballet Shoes (1936) by Noel Streatfeild
• Where the Red Fern Grows (1961) by Wilson Rawls
• The Fox and the Hound (1967) by Daniel P. Mannix
• The Last Unicorn (1968) by Peter S. Beagle
• The Harry Potter books (1997-2007)