A few years ago, I went to a bookstore with a friend. As we discussed different books we've read, she asked me if I still had Benavenuto. Benavenuto is a book I read as a kid. It's about a dragon named Benavenuto and it was offered through the Weekly Reader's Book Club. Remember that? Anyway, when I was a kid I thought Benavenuto was so cool that I started substituting the word "Benavenuto" for the adjective "cool." And I pronounced it, "Benavenuuuuuuuuuuuuuuto." So, I'd say, "That is so Benavenuuuuuuuuuuuuuuto."When my friend asked me if I'd seen the book lately, I told her that I hadn't even thought about it in years. (But obviously she knows me well enough to have heard me refer to the dragon's name on more than one occasion.) Then she had an idea. We walked over to the children's section and she asked a store clerk if they had the book in stock. As all three of us attempted and failed to spell "Benavenuto," we weren't able to find the book in the store's computer. And that was the end of that journey.
A few months ago though, as I was cleaning my basement, I found it. And to my dismay, I realized that I've been mispronouncing the dragon's name all these years. His name is really "Benvenuto." Somehow, that isn't nearly as fun. I like the extra syllable. And since nobody knows what I'm saying anyway, I think I'll keep pronouncing it the way I always have.
All this thinking about the little green dragon made me wonder if he appeared in other books. I did a search on Amazon and he did make one more appearance in a book called Benvenuto and the Carnival. That particular book was published in 1976. The original book that I have was published in 1974. And I have to tell you, the illustration of Benvenuto on the cover of the carnival book looks nothing like the cool imagine of the dragon on the book I have.
This adventure reminded me that sometimes memories are better than the real thing—not in regards to people, but things. Our memories of cars, homes, and sometimes even old books seem to get better as the years go by and those memories become part of who we are. We don't remember the flaws because we don't want to. And that's not necessarily a bad thing—unless you stumble across the original and come face to face with the reality that you've been mispronouncing a dragon's name for thirty years.
