Drawings by Julia Rothman/Photos courtesy of Chronicle Books
Around the time of my second birthday, my mom and dad brought me to a kiddie shrink. My favorite activity was lining things up–Cheerios, Easter eggs, trolls dolls–so my parents assumed I had a harrowing case of Baby OCD. Obviously, they were first-time parents. The shrink said there was nothing wrong with me and I was sent home (for now).
Today one of my favorite artists, Julia Rothman of Park Slope, released a new book called Hello NY: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Five Boroughs (Chronicle Books, $18.95). Several Lower East Side touchstones are rendered in sprightly pen-and-ink, from the Tenement Museum to Economy Candy. So is the New York Troll Museum, my favorite place I’ve never been (for now).
Hello NY: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Five Boroughs
On the sixth floor of the apartment building at 124 Orchard Street, Reverend Jen Miller tends to her temple of these toothless eight-toed creatures with distended plastic bellies, Kodachrome eyeballs and cotton candy hair. Visitors must have an appointment, and according to Rothman, the museum survived a perilous steam-pipe explosion four years ago. The assistant “trollologist” is a Chihuahua named Rev. Jen Junior.
Turns out that Rev. Jens, Rothman and I are not the only ones who remember trolls: DreamWorks Animation is releasing a troll movie in 2016, starring  Chloë Grace Moretz and Jason Schwartzman.