Book Memory #1

Though I think I have a strong memory, I am sometimes surprised when what I remember is not quite the same as the reality. Like many elementary school children, I loved it when I could order a book from the monthly book order form. I circled books of interest to me, saved my money, and occasionally was able to purchase a book for myself. That is how my mind remembers getting Rumer Godden's book The Story of Holly and Ivy. I searched for the copy on my mom's library shelves this week and found it, just as I had remembered it to look. The reds and greens of Holly's clothes and Ivy's coat matched my memory (artwork done by Adrienne Adams). When I opened the front cover, expecting to see my name written in a younger signature, I was surprised to find I had not purchased it at all. It was a gift from my kindergarten teacher at Christmas in 1972! I reread the story of a doll who refuses to believe the awful owl's prediction that she will go unsold and be put in storage and the determined orphan girl who just knows she will find her grandmother. It is a book about wishing, writes the narrator.

I am going to write to that dear teacher and tell her my story about the book she gave to me 41 years ago.