A World in a Grain of Sand

This is an absurd story told straightfaced about a boy who buys a duck at a candy store. The duck, who claims to be an angel, tells the boy he can make a wish, a specific wish, for a chariot. The book ends with everything back to normal. Not only do I love the story for its nonsense, but children in early grades love it as well. I’m not aware of any surface moral, but there are parents who seem to pay some attention, but not too much, to their son. There is a kind of Jewish mysticism called Chariot mysticism and there are purported angels, but if there is a mystical aspect to this book it is well hidden. Maybe its meaninglessness makes it Zen.

I bought a copy of this for ten cents from my local library, but it is practically irreplacable. So lending it to a child who promised to return it was a mistake. Fortunately a reparable mistake; it was returned within the year.