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I believe you are very much molded by the books you read growing up and this book definitely had a huge influence on me. I just reread it tonight and realized that it very much influenced my belief in myself - that I could do anything I set my mind to, despite the fact that I was a little girl or despite the fact that there might be obstacles.
It was written in 1939 so it was a book my Mother had read to her as a child, as many of my most treasured children's books are. Books she loved became books I love.
So, please indulge me as I share a childhood memory - I'm getting that Easter feeling. The daffodils are finally up at my house...and I'll need to decorate my redbud tree for Easter very soon. I've decorated the mantel in my home already and will share that this weekend.
Back to the book...I'll include an excerpt here...but I don't want to ruin it for you and tell it all. You'll be surprised how wonderful it is if you go buy it for yourself or to share with a child this Easter. Really...get a copy....it's a lovely, lovely book with the prettiest illustrations and the most inspiring story, especially for a little girl who will grow up to be brave and strong as well as feminine and resourceful.
The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
We hear of the Easter Bunny who comes each Easter Day before sunrise to bring eggs for boys and girls, so we think there is only one. But this is not so. There are really five Easter Bunnies, and they must be the five kindest, and swiftest, and wisest bunnies in the whole wide world, because between sunset on Easter Eve and dawn on Easter Morning they do more work than most rabbits do in a whole year.
When one of the Easter Bunnies grows old and can no longer run fast, the old, wise, and kind Grandfather Bunny who lives at the Palace of Easter Eggs calls the bunnies together from the whole world to select the very best one to take the place.
Often a mother bunny says to her child, "Now if you learn to be wise, and kind, and swift, some day you may grow up to be one of the Easter Bunnies." And all the babies try their very best, so that they can grow up and go to work for the Grandfather Bunny at the Palace of Easter Eggs.
One day a little country girl bunny with a brown skin and a little cotton-ball of a tail said, "Some day I shall grow up to be an Easter Bunny: - you wait and see!"
Then all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses,
and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run so fast, laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot. But she said, "Wait and see!"
The little girl Cottontail grew up to be a young lady Cottontail. And by and by she had a husband and then one day, much to her surprise there were twenty-one Cottontail babies to take care of.
Then the big white rabbits and the Jacks with long legs laughed and laughed and they said, "What did we tell you! Only a country rabbit would go and have all those babies. Now take care of them and leave Easter eggs to great big men bunnies like us." And they went away liking themselves very much.
Cottontail stopped thinking about hopping over the world with lovely eggs for little boys and girls, and she took care of her babies.
And one day, when her children stopped being babies and were little girl and boy bunnies, she called them to her and said, "Now we are going to have some fun."
I won't spoil it and type out the whole book....because the illustrations are so beautiful and it's a good 40 pages or more... But there are adventures, lessons learned, adversity and a special happy ending.
Everyone talks about the Magic of Christmas, but there is a Magic to Easter too. My Mom made it magical. We didn't only read this book at Easter but it was a favorite to read all during the year to dream of pastel eggs, bunnies, sugar eggs, tulips and little yellow chicks.
Reading this book tonight, definitely got me in the mood for Easter. If you decide you wish to order yourself a copy for this Easter...here's the link...
This link is for the paperback version....I didn't check but I bet there is a hardback version in the used sellers or on Ebay. It's a book to be cherished in hardback.
And if you have read this book please let me know....I'd love to know if there are others out there that love this book too.
I'm sharing on
