Heavenletters

This morning I thought of some books that were important to me as a child. I mentioned Plucky Little Patsy on the web site. I don't think I mentioned Clematis or A Tree for Peter.

I identified so much with Clematis. There was a frontispiece with her in school looking out the window. The illustration could have been called The Dreamer or the Longing for Something. Clematis was a sweet girl, an orphan, of course, and she just didn't see the world the way she was supposed to. She understood things in a different way. Of course, there was a very wish-fulfilled ending.

Another book I had forgotten about is A Tree of Peter by Kate Seredy. It had beautiful illustrations. It took place in a shantytown. I don't remember it exactly, but I think now it was a very spiritual book, though at the time I just knew it as a beautiful story. Of course, Peter and his mother had nothing. Peter very much wanted a Christmas tree. Somehow he meets a man he calls King Peter. As I remember, no one else thought King Peter was real. And yet, at the ending, there is a magnficent lit Christmas tree in the center of Shantytown. I think now that King Peter must have been Christ.

Anyway, what books from your childhood influenced you? I would love to read about you.

Love and blessings,

Gloria