What book am I thankful for?

                                                      WHAT BOOK AM I MOST 
                                          THANKFUL FOR?

courtesy of Beth Revis

Ok, this is an easy one.. kind of corny, but the book I am most thankful for is the one that started me on my reading voyage.
As a child,  I hated reading.  My mother tried everything to get me interested in reading, but to no avail.  I thought it was a boring waste of time.   The Scholastic Book pamphlet came home with me.  I was in the second grade.  Mom said "pick out a book and I'll buy it for you."  I remember rolling my eyes, but I sat down at the table, looked through the pamphlet and chose a book. I fully expected to get the book and throw it in my desk, never to be read.  Well...it didn't work as I planned.   I read the book.  I reread the book.   Then I read it again.  To this day that book has a very warm, solid place in my heart.  I call it the beginning of my voyage.  A voyage to other places, other times, other worlds.   On my voyages throughout the years, I've met aliens, battled warlords, encountered evil magicians and rescued royalty.  I'll never forget that book.  To this day I still have a copy.  I have two actually, my original copy that I keep in a sealed ziploc bag and a second copy I use to read when I'm feeling lonely.  My mom is no longer with me, she passed away several years ago from cancer.  I miss her terribly.  When I'm feeling sad or lonely I pull out the book and read it.   It reminds me of a simpler time.  A time when I was a little girl just learning about the wonders of a good book, and I can hear her voice yelling "Donna, put that book down and come to the dinner table."  

The name of this book?  MAGIC ELIZABETH  by Norma Kassirer
yes, this is the famous book, with the original cover.  Notice the price of 75 cents.   I love this book.   I've included a summary of the book.  


If it weren't for the picture of the girl and her doll hanging over the fireplace in her pretty room, Sally would be miserable staying with Aunt Sarah. For everything in this strange old house tucked between tall apartment buildings is scary and mysterious. In the dark, rainy night the house seems almost a witch's house, and Aunt Sarah herself, whom Sally has never seen before, is very old, a stooped figure with thin gray hair and gnarled fingers.

But the other Sally in the picture is smiling. She's about Sally's own age, and once, long ago, she lived in the big old house. In fact, her room was this very room. She's wearing a yellow bonnet with ribbons, a long blue dress with layers of ruffles, and high-buttoned shoes; and she's holding a rag doll on her lap, an adorable doll with eyes the pleasant shape of watermelon seeds, dressed exactly like her mistress except that her hands are tucked into a tiny white fur muff.

Sally soon finds the other Sally's trunk in the dusty old attic. The yellow bonnet and the blue dress are there, even the other Sally's diary. But not the rag doll, for Elizabeth mysteriously disappeared one snowy Christmas Eve long ago. The other Sally had thought Elizabeth might be magic, and maybe she was. For how else can you explain Sally's magical adventure in time that follows?