Sing, Sing a Song... Read Out Loud...

Overheard this morning, while laying in bed listening to my kids getting ready for the day (trying to find motivation to sit upright):

My son, singing to himself (he's seven) ".....I'm naked, and that's my butt! It's like a chair, and I can sit where ever I want! .....Now I need to find underwear! Because if I fart... "

I hollered and interrupted him at this point. I didn't want to know how that verse ended.

After the Tooth Fairy Fiasco, I spent all last night dreaming about other ways I could screw up. The Easter Bunny forgot to show up in my dream. I tried to distract the kids, while Mr. Savy put together baskets - but then he was an idiot and didn't take off any of the tags (something he would do) and for some reason everything had a clearance tag, and there were a lot of pairs of shoes (as in about 16 pairs, piled taller than I am.) ...and then I dreamt I finally found my true love, fell into a lake, forgot how to swim and drowned in the dark brown-green murky depths.

The musical from my son's room this morning was most welcome after that little night-gem.

So back to Easter and the shoe thing - I haven't ever given shoes for Easter, so I'm not sure what that means. As they were all athletic shoes, perhaps it is time to replace my running shoes? But you know, there is something to the whole shoe-thing on Easter, my very favorite Easter story is The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes:

The story is about a bunny-girl who is told she can never do anything in this world but be a mother. Yet, she has always admired and wanted to be one of the Easter Bunnies, and tells everyone that is what she is going to do (and of course no one believes her.) But then life happens, and she has a bazillion babies, and gives up her dream... until she actually does get chosen to be an Easter Bunny after all. But on her first Easter out she cannot make it to the top of a mountain where a sick child is, and she gets hurt... it ends well but... *sniffle*

It's a tear-jerker, kid-style. This one didn't make me as sad as The Giving Tree, but it still made me very tearful as a child. As an adult, it's even worse. I can't read it to my kids without choking up. I feel like a complete idiot. I have not even attempted to read the giving tree to my kids, they'd probably think I had lost my mind (and I really don't want to clue them into that fact, yet.)

One of the best things in the world is being able to share my love of books, especially the children's books which everyone scoffs that I still hold dear. I can't help it. Sure, I love grown-up books... I read trashy romances, adventure, sci-fi, and so on voraciously (I read about three to six 500+ pg books a week.) But nothing was ever better than those first books back when you first learned to read and to "see" the pictures in your head.

Do you have any cherished books from that early era in your life? My absolute favorite from childhood is the Island of the Blue Dolphins. I read that book so many times, it was falling apart. Anne of Green Gables became a major favorite too. I still have my copies of these books, tattered and worn. They're somehow more special because of it.

So what books did you fall into as a child? What were your favorites?