TDBC Day 28: Favorite Books

My original copy of These Happy Golden Years and my Laura Ingalls doll by Madame Alexander

I have loved books ever since I was a little girl. My favorite night of the week was when the bookmobile came. I could hardly wait to get there and start choosing the books that I wanted to take home. I would check out an armload of chapter books, and usually finished them all before the bookmobile came back two weeks later.

My 4th grade teacher Mrs. Goodrich, introduced me to the "Little House" books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was instantly in love with those books. She intended to read the entire series to our class before the end of the school year. She asked us not to read the books on our own, but I disobeyed; I couldn't wait that long, I finished them all long before the end of the school year, and still enjoyed listening to my teacher read them to the class.

For Christmas in 1970 my parents gave me a hardcover copy of These Happy Golden Years. I was thrilled to own a copy of a book that I loved so much. Inside they wrote these words:

For Lesley Ann, after much persuasion and coaxing on her part.
From Mom and Dad xxx
Christmas 1970.

In recent years I have purchased the entire series in hardcover, including a second copy of These Happy Golden Years (I had to have a matched set). When Caitlin was in elementary school, she and I read the entire series together in less than two years. I loved sharing those books with her. As we finished each book, we signed our names and the date in the back (and in one book, a few drops of blood from my dry, cracked, winter hands as I was signing). I hope someday that Caitlin has a daughter, and that they will read the books together also.

Leave a comment if you have read the "Little House" books. Do you love them!?!