We recently learned that our sweet Ivy (and her mommy and daddy!) will be coming to visit our house next month! We are excited for so many reasons, but maybe the biggest joy for me will be introducing Ivy to Marmee’s library.
Being a book lover, of course I kept not only the books my children loved, but also a few of the books that I loved as a child! There are the hard-backed Madeline books. Our most favorite of the Dr. Suess books. We have nursery rhyme books. Fairy tale books. The classics—old, like Margaret Wise Brown’s The Golden Egg Book and new, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar! I even have some obscure titles that my guess is many people have never heard of. And don’t even get me started on the all early reader, middle grade, and ya fiction I’ve kept!
Still, I looked at the small bit of shelf space allotted to children’s books and felt … sad. There were so many more great stories out there that I’d let go for one reason or another. And yes, I could go buy the newer books, but I miss the older ones.
Then I stumbled into an antique shop in a small Texas town—an antique shop with a 50% off everything sale, no less!—and stared in rapture at the shelves full of Little Golden books!
I swept up all the classic fairy tales and nursery rhyme books. All the ones I remembered from my own childhood. And all the Bible story books. I spent way more than I’d anticipated, yet way less that I would have spent had I bought them in more touristy places or even at this shop’s full price!
Now these books sit on the shelf I see as I walk in the door and my heart soars as I think about the years to come. My little Ivy already loves to be read to. And her mommy and daddy read her good books. But I hope there will be books in my library that she’ll find only there. Stories that will capture both her imagination and her heart. I hope when Ivy and all my future grandchildren grow up, they will fondly remember time spent with Marmee in her library.
What were your favorite books as a child? What have been your favorite books to read to your children and/or grandchildren?
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So awesome Anne!
What a great find 😁 I saved the favourite books from our children too, and now they also have become favourites of our grandchildren!
I love hearing that, Grace! 🙂
My granddaughters love all the old books I kept for them all these years, moving them from house to house. And I love reading to them.
I so hope my grandchild(ren) come to appreciate the old books. I feel there is so much good in them that gets lost in the shuffle these days.
Hi Anne, We have a 2 year old grandson named Zach. Our son is in the military so we haven’t been able to visit much with Zach since they are in El Paso. That is changing soon as they will stationed just be 3 hours from us at Ft. Sill. I have over 50 little books waiting to read to him when he visits us. I can’t wait to read to him and find out which books are his favorites.
My favorite book from my childhood is Mr. Pine’s Purple House . My Dad read that book to me for years. I have such good memories of him reading to me. He read a book about Smokey the Bear to me to but I can’t remember the title of it.
How wonderful that Zach is moving closer to you! I know you will create special memories as you read to and with him. I’ve never heard of Pine’s Purple House. I’ll have to look it up!
I loved the Little Golden Books, too! Plus I loved Black Beauty, a series about a boy and his horse called Billy and Blaze and a book about a moose called My Friend Mac. I loved reading the book Bruce’s Loose Tooth (about a moose with a loose tooth – you can imagine the rhymes!) to my girls when they were young.
I’ve read Black Beauty as well, but haven’t heard of the others. They sound fun!
Love this! Reading to little ones is such a joy. I thoroughly enjoyed moving from board books to picture books to chapter books with my three. Oh the fun you’ll have with Ivy revisiting all those favorites from your childhood and your children’s childhood.
Yes we will have fun! In fact, I’m guessing it will be even more fun with my grandchild because I won’t have to stop and “do” things if I don’t want to! 🙂
Mother saved for me the little book that was my favorite story I loved to have read to me–Chester the Pony. I have it somewhere in my house now and haven’t looked at it recently. However, I remember that the mother of the story was hanging clothes to dry on the line, and Chester came running through the area, accidentally snagged a bed sheet from the line, and continued running in ghostlike manner covered with that sheet. I suppose that is the part that I enjoyed the most since a horse playing dress-up or pretending to be a ghost must have amused me.
Later I became a fan of Misty of Chincoteague and Nancy Drew books amongst others. As a third grade teacher, my favorites were the Boxcar Children, and Beverly Cleary books. Oh, the wonderful world of books!
I love that you remember such detail from that book! That’s one of the things I value about the old ones—they teach kids through both words and pictures was life was like for their grandparents and great-grandparents. I mean, how many kids know about hanging clothes on a clothesline these days? Right?
There is no greater joy than reading to a grandchild and constructing a library for them. My grandchildren are now 10 and 12, and I still give them books – probably too many books.
I loved all of the ones you mentioned and had them for my children. One of my favorites as a child was The Surprise Doll by Morrell Gipson. I had my original, much read, with binder breaking, but was able to order a new one that was published for the 60th anniversary. I especially recommend that book for a girl. Also, other favorites are The Velveteen Rabbit and Where the Wild Things Are.
I know you are enjoying your granddaughter.
I haven’t heard of the Surprise Doll! I’ll look it up! And oh, yes, the Velveteen Rabbit is one of my absolute favorites!
Some of the most memorable books I remember from my childhood were the Richard Scarry books.
Richard Scarry books are so great! I still have a few. I just love the stories and the illustrations!
My granddaughter turns 3 in a few days and I love reading to her and her baby brother! She never seems to tire of bringing any sitting person books to read to her. I have a few saved from my childhood, more saved from my kids, and have been collecting any oldie-but-goody books I find a bargain prices to have a my “grandma library.” I remember Curious George and Frances the badger.
Curious George and Francis and both so good! I love that you keep your special library for your grandkids, too!
Thumbelina! Definitely my favorite childhood book.