Shirley Temple's Fairyland

When I was about 4 years old, my Aunt Bernice gave this book to me. It has been a cherished thing from my childhood on. 

I don’t recall the exact circumstances, but I was in the back seat of Aunt Bernice’s car, with Auntie, who was my Uncle Paul’s aunt. We were waiting for Bernice to run some sort of errand and she had given me the book to look at. I was bored just sitting there and was singing at the top of my lungs. No song in particular, just making up stuff like little kids do. I was enjoying myself tremendously, and thought I was doing a pretty good job. Auntie looked at me but didn’t say anything. When Bernice got back to the car, Auntie told her about all the racket I had been making, and Bernice turned around and said “Well, we’ll just take this back, then,” and grabbed the book and put it in the front seat next to her. I was stunned. I truly didn’t think I had done anything wrong.

I don’t remember when I got the book back, and I don’t remember ever being read to from it, but I do know I’ve always had this book. It has beautiful illustrations, and once I could read for myself, I read it over and over. Sadly, it got lost among my vast amount of “stuff” and it didn’t reach the light of day until both Sarah and Paul were too old to be read to, so they never got the benefit from this book that I did. But it’s not too late for me to share this with Lia!