Changed.

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled, "This could change your life."

- Helen Exley

Christmas, 1971.

Grandma and Grandpa Chenoweth gave me an important gift. I opened the book and was immediately mesmorized my the watercolor images that hinted at the adventure I was about to take.

Potowatomi Indian Summer made me a reader. I was seven and reading's inferno had yet to be ignited inside of me. But as I began reading the first pages, I was wandering the dunes of southwest Michigan with that group of kids. I remember sitting under the Christmas tree, the book magically lit by the lights on the tree. Through the words Oldenburg's words, I could smell the trees and feel the cool of their shadows. I walked with those kids on the same pine-needled paths they walked. It gave me goosebumps ... it gives me goosebumps now> I was there with them. My imagination was ignited by that book.

It changed my life.

What book did it for you? What book began your reading life?

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Chenoweth.