Memories of Bingo Brown

Tapping back into books I grew up on.

I first discovered The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown when I was in elementary school. It came out in 1988, and, when it was nominated for the Mark Twain Readers Award, I read it.

For background- the Mark Twain Readers Award is a competition in Missouri. Students in grades four through six voted on those books back in the day, the list of nominees comprised fifteen or sixteen books (I’m going by memory, it might’ve changed since then), and you had to read at least four to be allowed to vote. Total honor system and supervision was left to your teachers, but whatever. I loved to read so it was no challenge for me.

The first year I was eligible to vote in the contest, The Burning Questions of Bingo Brown made the list. I started reading it and was hooked. Couldn’t put it down. Here’s this kid who (spoiler alert) falls in love with three girls over the course of not even one full day, we’re talking maybe fifteen minutes. And he calls it a love that would “last for a lifetime, eternity, maybe even infinity.”

The book takes you through his awkward pre-teen angst, dealing with issues like lost love, social development, and even suicide. Some pretty heavy stuff for a ten year old, but, given the shit that had started in my home life- my father being out of work, my sister starting her own…