Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high

I will always love the smell of a library, the feel of being surrounded by books. Some of my happiest memories are when my mom would take me there as a little girl. And all these years later, I have often thought about a certain book that I loved, but could never remember its name. Today after searching on Google, a 20-year mystery was solved. I have no doubt in my mind that I will read this book to my children:


The Great Blueness and Other Predicaments by Arnold Lobel is about a wizard who lived in a time when everything was black, white and gray. The wizard mixes some interesting things together and finds something at the bottom of his cauldron that he names "blue." And you can see from the cover that he discovers other colors too. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I looked it up on Amazon and it's out of print. Hardback copies start at $25. But still, I am going to have to break down and buy it. I NEED THIS BOOK.

I also used to look for a book at the library that I only read once and loved. Each week I would try and find it, but I never could. All I remembered was a grandfather, a granddaughter and an apple tree. So I Googled (bless you, internet!) those terms and found this book:

It's called The Two of Them by Aliki. It's about the special relationship of a grandfather and graddaughter from her birth until his death. Obviously I choked up when I found this. The cover even looks like me and my Abbu. And I remember the apple tree they had in their yard when I was a little girl. I was so happy to find this one too.

Another favorite was this book that I read at my grandparent's house:


Mostly Magic was part of a children's set of books. This was my favorite of the series, and the copy is worn from all the years of enjoyment. My favorite stories included "Little Black Sambo," "Bedulinck" (sp?) and many others. I would get so excited when my mom read me stories from this book.

The most beautiful book I have ever read is A Time To Keep by Tasha Tudor. Just saying the title of this book makes me tear up. It is a book that takes you through the holidays, beginning with a little girl saying, "Granny, what was it like when Mummy was like me?" My favorite is when she talks about how they floated cakes down the river for a birthday:

Another favorite of mine was Lemonade Serenade by Don Madden. My mom said I checked this book out every time I went to the library. She bought it for me a few years ago. It is about how during a tea party, it is discovered that there are elves in the garden making beautiful music.

One book I haven't been able to track down is a book I had long, long ago about fairies. All I can remember is something about wood fairies...the gleams of orange that crackle up from a fire are fairies. I would love to find this one too. If anyone has any idea what that book is, I would sincerely appreciate it.

How is it possible that most of these are out of print? I am sure I will read my children some of the newer books, but I will undoubtedly invest in these classics that brought me so much pleasure.

I would love to hear some of your favorites also. Which books brought you great joy and took you to faraway lands?