The Books

Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch

by Eileen Spinelli
Illustrated by Paul Yalowitz

One Potato Review

He’s the average looking guy you see walking down the street every day, maybe at the laundry, on the train, and maybe you even nod hello, and maybe he leads a secret life of daring and espionage and bling, but probably not. No, in all likelihood he is not very different than Mr. Hatch, who works in a shoelace factory, and eats the same cheese and mustard sandwich for lunch, then sometimes when he’s feeling a little bit crazy, a prune for dessert. All he needs is love? Well, maybe. Or, at any rate, the possibility that someone else is even paying attention to his existence when he isn’t looking. It’s hard to exactly place the source of joy we can make of other people’s affections, and pass on, still even when they are the result of misunderstandings or postal errors, they are bound to leave some traces where we would not remember to look. Because what is community spirit finally but thousands of the tiniest gestures? An iconic, and sincerely felt, reminder.

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