9. My Book House

My mother had the foresight to surround me with a lot of books and for that I am grateful. She signed me up for the Weekly Reader Book Club and once a month I received a book in the mail — many of which I remember to this day. She also bought me an inexpensive set of encyclopedias (I think they were from the grocery store or something) and made sure I had and used a library card.

The very best books she bought me was actually a set of books. It was an anthology of literature in 12 volumes called My Book House compiled by Olive Beaupré Miller. The books are arranged in ascending order from easy to difficult. From nursery rhymes and simple children’s poetry and stories in the first volume through longer stories and poetry up through some classics in the final volume (which also holds an extensive index). The stories and poems come from all over the world.

I’m going to write about all 12 volumes (is that cheating?) in this blog (different posts of course) — and pick out a story or poem that I mostly remember from each one, but for the record, here are the titles of each volume:

Volume 1 — In the Nursery
Volume 2 — Story Time
Volume 3 — Up One Pair of Stairs
Volume 4 — Through the Gate
Volume 5 — Over The Hills
Volume 6 — Through Fairy Halls
Volume 7 — In the Garden
Volume 8 — Flying Sails
Volume 9 — The Treasure Chest
Volume 10 — Through the Tower Window
Volume 11 — In Shining Armor
Volume 13 — Halls of Fame

There were times in school where we were learning about this or that and I remembered having read about it in one of the volumes of My Book House. Now I know how important that was — to have a base of knowledge on which to build more knowledge. I’m not sure my mom knows how important this set of books was to me.