I hold onto books... I have the Anne of Green Gables series and Little House on the Prairie series - both gifts from my Grandmother Pauline. I have treasuries of Beatrix Potter - another author whom I adore.
Now that I have children of my own - hanging onto these books and sometimes fighting to keep them (husbands just aren't so sentimental...) I am beginning to see the rewards of my hard work to keep them in my possession. I must also thank my mother, who carefully labeled books with the three siblings' names depending on who they belonged to. Presently I am the only one who has left home so I have been given my box of books - although some of my sister's books from early childhood have made it into our stash.
But I digress!
The other night Madeleine pulled out the Old Bear Tales book and remembering that some of the stories are quite long, I looked for the shortest one.
"The Bunny Dancer" was very short - a poem actually. When I opened the page and Madeleine looked at it, she jumped up and ran to get her ballerina bunny.
She returned moments later so excited she could barely speak. "Look Momma, same and same!" she exclaimed as she placed her little ballerina bunny over the drawing of Lizzie Long Ears.
It really is amazing how closely the two bunnies resemble each other. You have to almost wonder if the person who designed the little stuffed rabbit now laying across the page - had once read this very same book...
We've read the story several more times since then and each time she ceremoniously puts her own bunny - now affectionately called "Lizzie Long Ears" on the page. Maddie squeals as I help Lizzie mimic the phrases of the poem..
The Bunny Dancer, by Jane Hissey
Lizzie Long Ears loves to dance
with music or without it,
and if she ever gets a chance
she'll tell you all about it;
she'll mention that she leaps and lands
on just one toe and stays there;
(she balances so perfectly
she might spend several days there!)
She pirouettes and hops and jumps,
and if you've ever seen her,
You'll know without a doubt that
she's a bunny ballerina.
