Book Memories

This is the first "real" book I remember owning.  It was given to me by my first grade teacher, Miss Hooper, a rather corpulent lady who I loved dearly.  I don't remember much about first grade, but I remember that I thought Miss Hooper was the greatest person in the world, in part because she would let me read during nap time instead of actually trying to sleep, but mainly because she did her best to keep me entertained while the rest of the class learned to read.

I have no memory of learning to read.  Not of learning the alphabet or sounding out words like "dog" and "cat". I'm told that I was reading on my own by age three or so.  And reading has been a huge part of my life since that time.

My parents have been working on cleaning out years of saved items from mine and my siblings' childhood and my niece found this in a box of old books.  I'm sure that I owned other books before this, and I know I've owned thousands since, but this is the first one I remember loving.  I was so proud that Miss Hooper had given me such a wonderful gift, and I read it over and over again.

Periodically I try to go through my books and make some hard decisions about what to keep and what to pass on.  It's gut wrenching every time, because I would keep them all if space allowed.  But this is one that has earned a permanent place on my shelves.