30 Day Book Challenge! Day 22: In Love

Day 22: What is the book that made you fall in love with reading?

I don't remember a time when I couldn't read (mama had me reading kiddy books by age 4), and I don't remember a time when I didn't love to read, or be read to. I assume the answer to this question should technically be some wonderful story-book like Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? from Dr. Seuss or Dance at Grandpa's from 'My First Little House Books' - of course those were favorites! Mama read Dr. Seuss with such fun and enjoyment that one couldn't help but love them, and Daddy read the Laura Ingalls short-stories so many times I'm sure he had them all memorized; he would tease us by calling Laura's bull dog "Bill" instead of "Jack" and "little sister Carrie" "little cousin Kelly". But regardless of how much I may have loved those books, they are stories that I loved to have read to me, not that I loved to read myself. Therefore, I've chosen a different book to answer with - one which held my fascination for as long as I can remember. Originally, I just loved looking through the pictures; I thought it was a "grown-up" book and too hard for me to read. Imagine my elation, then, when I realized one day that I could read and understand all the words!

Photo Credit

The Story of Little Christmas (which, by the way, I just realized for the first time was written by George MacDonald) was (to a Little) a strange and wonderful, sad and happy story of a little crossing-sweep girl called "Christmas". Told in the first person by the boy in the picture, he tells of how he and his uncle first met Little Christmas, of his uncle's love for and adopting of the wee girl, of her consequent kidnap, of the search made for her, and of her seemingly miraculous return which pulls his uncle through a terrible sickness to which he had been about to succumb. It is the story of love, of loyalty, and, knowing the author, of much more - although I have not read it in easily 15 years. Still, it is a story I know I loved from early on - one of the many books that made me fall in love with reading!