Amos and Boris

When i was young, 3 or 4 years old, getting a visit from my mom's sister Aunt Kathy was always a highly anticipated event. She only lived 2 hours away, but it was only rarely that she would be able to find time to come. It was only on these occasions that she could watch my brother and I that my parents would go out, and it became an adventure to have the house to ourselves. She would order us Chinese food which we would eat on cushions in the living room, and a present or two could always be counted on. More than anything else though, what I looked forward to was the new book she would bring us. It would be a brand new book with stiff pages and a spine that crackled when you opened it. The last thing that we would do before going to sleep was to sit on the couch with our pjs on and our teeth brushed, with me sitting between Kathy's legs and Harper just to one side. Kathy would take out the new book and read it aloud to us, while recording it onto a cassette tape so that I, who was not yet a strong reader, could listen to it on my own while i looked at the pictures. We each had our own jobs: Harper would read the title and author, Kathy would read the rest of the book, and it was my job to turn the pages, which i took very seriously. Listening to these tapes now still brings back vivid memories of the excitement of opening the book for the first time and comfort i found in the calmness of snuggling on the couch. Of all the books that she ever read to us, the one that sticks most in my memory is Amos and Boris, about the mouse and the whale who, against all odds, help each other out of tough situations and become life-long friends. I loved the thought of a mouse being able to help a whale hundreds of times bigger than himself, and that the two animals with so little in common could still be great friends.
The love of books and reading instilled in me from these visits stayed with me to this day. I still find comfort from reading a book and it is still my favorite thing to do before going to sleep. For me, reading a book provides an escape from the chaos and problems of everyday life.