Literary Quote: Picture Books Are For Everyone

Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalizing gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader’s imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book.                                                                            ~Anthony Browne, UK Children’s Laureate, 2009-2011

What are your favorite picture books?  Everyone has a memory associated with a favorite picture book or two (or one hundred and two!).  Although I personally have SEVERAL favorite picture books and am continually finding new ones to love, I do have a favorite from childhood.  

This was a treasured little book that soon became one of my favorites!  As a child, I had to spend quite a bit of time in children's hospitals.  Each time I prepared to take the trip to enter the hospital, my beloved Grandma would cuddle me onto her lap and read this story to me as many times as I wanted to hear it.  Although I wasn't going to have my tonsils removed, I was able to identify with the little girl in the book as she also prepared for her own hospital stay.  Besides all of the obvious reasons that this was one of my favorite books as a child, I also really loved the sound of the little girl's doctor's name: Dr. Constantanople!  I looked forward to hearing Grandma say his name and I loved to repeat it.  Dr. Constantanople!  

I would love to find a copy of this Little Golden Book that was important to me so long ago.   What a glorious way to relive memories of my Grandma who is no longer with us!  Thanks Grandma for sharing those special moments with me and for putting my mind at ease about my hospital stays.