A precious little book

Have you been looking for a sweet book to read aloud to your tiny children, one that will capture their attention and imagination, and yet teach them some great values?

I have just found a treasure just like that, one that spoke to my heart as well as to the hearts of my tiny girls. It is The Racketty, Packetty House by Francis Hodgson Burnett (the author of The Secret Garden and The Little Princess).

This is a book about dollhouse dolls, which is right down the alley of most little girls (although there are many elements that would entertain and bring a smile to a young boy's face). The dolls of a dilapidated dollhouse are upstaged when their owner, a little girl, receives a grand, brand-new castle with new dolls, furniture, etc. and the nurse threatens to put the racketty-packetty house out to be burned.

But the residents of the old house are so sweet, so full of good cheer and kindness, that they continue to encourage each other with high hopes, and then some fairies come to help them!

Along the way my children were taught to be kind, even to those who mistreat you (just as Jesus taught), and that it is the good in heart that receive the best rewards (as those who love and serve God here by being His hands and feet to others will be rewarded by His blessed presence in Heaven).

If you can get ahold of a copy of this book, do! You and your children will be warmed and enthused, and you might even find yourself giggling at the antics of the sweet characters as Burnett has created them.

You can find this book on Google books, Gutenberg, on Amazon, or, hopefully at your local library (the first picture is the front of the 100th anniversary edition, done in 2006, and the rest of the illustrations are from the 1914 version).