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Joy has been kinda-sorta interested in the American Girl books lately. Her grandmother brought the Samantha movie out a few months ago and we all watched it together, and so I handed Joy the first Samantha book after that. She enjoyed it well enough to be willing to read the next one, but then of course the library didn’t have Samantha’s Surprise, so we stalled for a little while. I gave her Meet Felicity and Felicity Learns a Lesson to tide her over until the book came through ILL, and again, she enjoyed them but wasn’t hooked.

This morning, I came into the bedroom after Gracie got up and came out and there was still no sign of Joy. I found her on the floor, lining up Samantha’s Surprise, Happy Birthday Samantha, Felicity’s Surprise, and Happy Birthday Felicity (we kind of went all out at the library) in a neat row. Since then, she has worked her way down the line, picking up one after another as soon as she’s finished the first, stopping with great reluctance for things like meals and chores and drawing and play – yes, even playing! Every chance she gets she zooms right back to the books. She was so happy when I told her, since I had to stop by the library anyway this afternoon, that I could look for the rest of the Samantha and Felicity books, and she was thrilled when I told her how many more American Girls with books there were at all.

I’m not making any grandiose statements like “These are the books that have turned my daughter into a reader!” when it’s only one day … but it is wonderful to see her so absorbed in these stories. It makes my heart happy, and I don’t want to forget it in a few months or years.