It was the standard answer every time one of the kids needed a book for class. “We have that book … somewhere.” At which point the search would begin.

Was it in the office, where there are two floor-to-ceiling book shelves? In the living room’s built-in bookcase (one of the two reasons we bought the house, the other being the big backyard)? Was it the alcove bookshelf at the top of the stairs? Or in the new bookshelves by the bathroom? In Suzanne’s room, or Claire’s or Celia’s? Or maybe in the basement. There are bookshelves under the window there (mostly children’s classics) or by the door to the laundry room (a hodgepodge).

Chances are, though, that the book was somewhere I hadn’t thought to look — behind another row of books.

While I remembered double-shelving some books that way, there were rows of others I just recently found.

It was like discovering a hidden kingdom, realizing there were 40, 50 or 60 books I’d completely forgotten we had. Or maybe not… Maybe those were the books I was looking for all along!