The Anything Box

Strangely enough, I was first introduced to Henderson's writings in 1990, through a group of electronica musicians who named their band after her short story The Anything Box. After reading an interview with the band, and learning of Henderson`s influence, I read her excellent collection of short stories titled Anything Box.In her short story The Anything Box, I appreciated Henderson's sympathetic characterization of the teacher. Henderson, a teacher herself, ably presented the character in a positive manner, without distracting us from the center of the story, Sue-lynn and her Anything Box. Through the teacher's observations, I grew sympathetic for Sue-lynn as a fragile, young mind. At the same time, I was thankful the young girl had such a caring teacher looking out for her well-being. As a side note, I'd like to think that Henderson was such a teacher, given her characterization of the teacher and her obvious empathy for her young charge.The rest of the stories in this book are just as well-written and engrossing. This is positively one of the best books I've ever read.

One of those books that will stay with you forever! A collection of magical short stories that weaves fantasy together with the sense of wonder we all felt as children. Fascinating and compelling. It's currently out of print, but is absolutely worth seeking out.

I read The Anything Box for the first time when I was 12 years old after finding it at a yard sale. It was my greatest find! The stories have lived with me for over twenty years and still call me back to them. Truly a book for all ages!

Like Tolkien's 'Smith of Wootton Major', the quiet, honest, caring folk who inhabit the foreground of Zenna Henderson's stories live simply and try to accept life as they find it. These traits help them keep their balance and act compassionately when they find out that they have vulnerable neighbors who must live with care on the boundary between vastly different worlds. This is perhaps best illuminated in the personal struggle of the primary-grades teacher who encounters 'The Anything Box' in one such child's hands, right there in her otherwise-ordinary classroom. Set in the arid Southwest of the late 1940s, these stories are both timeless and contemporary, both exotic and immediately familiar to anyone who has been a first-grader in 20th-century America. The plight of the "different ones" among us has been told many times and in many ways, but seldom with such tenderness and understanding.

Zenna Henderson's works are the type of books you read and then wonder "why is this book out of print? It's FANTASTIC!" Hers is a world of grade-school teachers who really are magical, pathways to other dimensions hidden in back-pockets and under old beds, and characters who are People (in more than one sense of the word.) This is one of the few books I recommend without hesitation to anyone. Read it, buy it, tell the publisher to print more. Henderson's work embodies the rare qualities of spiritually moving without being maudlin, relevant yet timeless, and always good. It's never a question of which stories are good or bad, just which are good or really good.