It's Children’s Book Week!

Yes, I realize that you might be all wrapped up in the fact that May is Volcano Awareness Month — but HEY, this is Children’s Book Week!

Rest assured, these two national events are completely unrelated.

Anyway, Children’s Book Week began way back in 1919 — a very good year for me. It just so happens that 1919 was also the year of my grandfather’s birth. Remember him? He was the one who went to school with that dreamy Professor from Gilligan’s Island…

But I digress.

If you are a parent or happen to write for children, you probably spend a lot of time reading children’s books as a grownup. But stop for a moment and consider those books you read as a child…

Which one was your favorite?

What made it special?

As for me, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder was my most beloved book. We read it in my 4^th grade class, and I still remember those particular school days as wonder-filled.

I must have talked about it nonstop at home, too, because very late one night I was awoken out of a deep sleep. My dad had just returned from a business trip to Vermont, and he had something for me to try.

It was maple sugar…

just like Laura had enjoyed long, long ago in the Big Woods.

I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.

PROMPT: Find your little piece of heaven by getting a copy of your favorite childhood book and rereading it this week. I know I’ll be pulling out my dog-eared copy of Little House in the Big Woods. It’ll be a nice break from all of this Volcano Awareness, after all — Ma and Pa Ingalls are pretty much mum when it comes to ash clouds, cinder cones, and molten lava.