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Book Description:
How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga CountryGimme the Ax lived in a house where everything is the same as italways was."The chimney sits on top of the house and lets the smoke out," saidGimme the Ax. "The doorknobs open the doors. The windows are alwayseither open or shut. We are always either upstairs or downstairs inthis house. Everything is the same as it always was."So he decided to let his children name themselves."The first words they speak as soon as they learn to make words shallbe their names," he said. "They shall name themselves."When the first boy came to the house of Gimme the Ax, he was namedPlease Gimme. When the first girl came she was named Ax Me NoQuestions.And both of the children had the shadows of valleys by night in theireyes and the lights of early morning, when the sun is coming up, ontheir foreheads.And the hair on top of their heads was a dark wild grass. And theyloved to turn the doorknobs, open the doors, and run out to have thewind comb their hair and touch their eyes and put its six soft fingerson their foreheads.And then because no more boys came and no more girls came, Gimme theAx said to himself, "My first boy is my last and my last girl is myfirst and they picked their names themselves."Please Gimme grew up and his ears got longer. Ax Me No Questions grewup and her ears got longer. And they kept on living in the house whereeverything is the same as it always was. They learned to say just astheir father said, "The chimney sits on top of the house and lets thesmoke out, the doorknobs open the doors, the windows are always eitheropen or shut, we are always either upstairs or downstairs--everythingis the same as it always was."After a while they began asking each other in the cool of the eveningafter they had eggs for breakfast in the morning, "Who's who? Howmuch? And what's the answer?""It is too much to be too long anywhere," said the tough old man,Gimme the Ax.And Please Gimme and Ax Me No Questions, the tough son and the toughdaughter of Gimme the Ax, answered their father, "It _is_ too much tobe too long anywhere."