What Book Takes You Back?

You could answer this question in so many ways.

What book takes you back to your own childhood?

What book takes you back to elementary school or middle school or high school?

What book takes you back to when your own children were young?

What book takes you back to a difficult or especially challenging time in your life?

What story takes you back to Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Books are like songs, at least for me.  Like Eric Church sings, “Funny how a melody sounds like a memory”. Songs can take us back in time and for many of us, stories do too. 

NIGHT by Elie Wiesel made such an impact on me in junior high.  That book opened my eyes to the horrors of the Nazis and what the Jewish people endured.  Images were painted in my mind that are still very clear. I will remember that book forever.

DEADLINE by Randy Alcorn really made an impact on me as a young adult.  Three best friends are traveling together after college and are involved in a horrible car accident.  One dies and goes to heaven, one dies and doesn’t go to heaven (get the picture?), and the third is hanging on. The two that have passed on are trying to communicate with the one whose is fighting for his life; trying to help him choose the right path. It is powerful.

The book that I will claim as my favorite book to read to my children when they were little is LOVE YOU FOREVER by Robert Munsch.  The cover shows a little guy making a mess in the bathroom with toilet paper, so you may think it’s just a silly book:

But, I can guarantee, Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandpa, that you’re going to get all choked up when you read this book to your little one.  Even the 21^st time, you’re going to get emotional.  Robert Munsch walks us through the entire cycle of life in this sweet story of how we love our kids forever- and how they love us back. 

There’s a sad little tune we made up for the song part, remember kids?!

It’s good to build these kinds of memories for and with our kids.  I hope that when the little ones of today look back, that they have memories of stories that impacted them, not just a blur of technology and screens.  I think, for our generation, it takes intentional effort.  Now back to that question:  What book takes you back?  Would it be a sweet story to share with the littles ones in your life as you book some time with them?