Saturday, December 6th is Take Your Child To A Bookstore day .  MY SISTER’S BOOKS in Pawley’s Island, SC is planning a Children’s Day event and they’ve invited me to be there.   I’m so happy for the invitation.  I look forward to celebrating books and reading with kids and families on that day. 
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve bookstores.  The one that comes to mind happened during the week between Christmas and New Year’s in 1964.  We were living in Colorado at the time.  I was with my parents in Santa Fe and we happened upon a small independent bookstore that sold new and used books.  I found a copy of The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. The cover looked mysterious and inviting. I sat down on the wooden floor and started reading.  I didn't want to stop.  

I left the bookstore that day with The Twenty-One Balloons and another book called Mulbridge Manor.  During the long drive home to Denver, I was transported to another world in the backseat of our station wagon with my nose firmed planted in a book.  When I looked up, there were the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and miles of open highway. 

It’s a lovely memory and it all started with two parents taking a child to a bookstore on a clear winter Saturday.