The Page After the End of the Book

When I was a child I loved books.  And thankfully, today I still have some of those books as my parents were kind enough to save them for me.  Many of them we haven't let our children read yet, mostly because they're a little delicate after all the years and my children aren't the most gentle beings when it comes to books and paper.

I remember there were books that were so good, so riveting, so happy at the end that I wanted there to be more to the story.  The way the paper was wrapped over the back cover makes sense to an adult, but to a young child, it looks like it's a special wrapping job that's there to hide the secret page after the last page in the book. 

I was a little hesitant to just rip into the books because if the book was that good, I didn't want to mess it up looking for a page I hoped was there, but wasn't altogether sure was actually there.  I remember peeling back a little of the paper.  Maybe there was some tearing, but no serious damage.  I didn't see anything yet, but maybe the hidden page was smaller in dimensions than the other pages because it was hidden and inside that cardboard back cover.  It's sure to be something good if it's hidden so well.

Mostly, I was disappointed to find brown paper fibers and a complete lack of bonus story content.  One time I remember seeing something, getting excited and then discovering it was a printer's mark on the reverse side of the paper.

I never did find a secret message or final page.  Eventually I realized it was just hopeful thinking.  I had forgotten all about that until I noticed my daughter doing the same thing the other day when we got to the end of one of her books.

The Bit Boy Update:  He only wants daddy...again.  We had to swap children a while back because my husband usually "manned" him while I would handle my daughter for various things like shopping trips, getting them ready for bed and putting them to bed.  We're going to have to switch it up again to get things reset.  Last time it took about a week.  It appears we've lapsed into old habits again.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She's only two, but she has tried to find a secret page more than once.  Initially she would flip the last page all the way over, see the book was closed, and then open it back up again.  Most recently, she's been trying to find out if there's a page she's missed before the end of the book.  It brought back childhood memories to watch her do this.