Old Friends

I am now in the habit of reading out loud to myself, almost every night.  Well, not just to myself.  I make sure I have a stuffed animal or two in the room and I pretend to read to them. I pretend they interject from time to time.  Um, no, I don't think I need to seek professional help - yet.

Ah, you want to know what I read to the stuffies?  Well, I finished Winnie-the-Pooh and the House at Pooh Corner, then I found some Uncle Wiggily books and read those.  I went through several story collections. Eileen Colwell's Storyteller's Choice got quite a few visits.

But the best ever of all sources of stories - the most beloved, - the trip into my childhood and into timeless stories - are these two collections.

My Book House - edited by Olive Beaupré Miller - is 12 volumes of stories, poems, rhymes, excerpts arranged in accessibility by age.  Each volume covers a different type of story and each volume is more complex and more challenging in readability and concepts than the volumes before it.

My favorite books right now are Collier The Junior Classics.  This 10 book set taught me my Greek and Roman myths, Celtic tales, animal tales that were considered the best in the 50's and 60's.  The series was first put out in 1918. In the 1970s, Junior Classics underwent some changes.  I know this because I had lost a volume from my husband's 10 volume set - almost identical to the set that ended up in one of my sibling's homes.  The local used book store got me that volume from a 1970's printing.  Wrong stories!  Different illustrations!  My childhood had been tossed away. 

Bless them, the ladies at The Old Library Shop found the book I wanted. The set is complete.  The stories I loved are all there.



It's way past bedtime.  I have to "get ready".  Now, where did I put Felina Fairyfox and Nutty Romomlia?

Read an old story - out loud if you choose.  Good night.