Fact: S’s 9th birthday is coming up.

Fact: Pictured at left is his beloved, well-worn copy of John D. Fitzgerald’s Me and My Little Brain, which used to be my equally beloved, somewhat less well-worn copy.

Fact: The rest of the original seven Great Brain books that I’ve handed down to S — I think I left The Great Brain at the Academy at a friend’s lake cabin in 1982 or so; I keep meaning to ask — aren’t in much better shape. And I never did the posthumous eighth book in the series.

Fact: I will be getting S something for his birthday. But what? But…what?