Lying in bed one Christmas Eve night, a middle-aged man thinks back to the Christmas when he was fifteen, and the special gift he gave to his father. So, while I stumbled on this book accidentally, I am truly grateful that I went with it and fed my inner child that has gone way too long without reading a book with pictures. This one comes with such a heart-warming father/son story that I have no shame to say I teared up a bit. I forgot just how wonderful picture books are. I loved seeing the calf's breath in the cool of the barn and the pictures on the wall on the stairs. I just ate my lunch very slowly reading and THOROUGHLY taking in every illustrated picture absorbing all the details as if I were a 7 yr old being read a story. I was too embarrassed to admit I'd clearly made a mistake so I thanked her and checked it out hoping my cheeks weren't turning red.

She smiled and pulled the book off the shelf and handed it to me. I was quite sure she must be mistaken, this is an ADULT book I was looking for. I told her about the book and she said she knew the book well and led me to the kids section at the opposite end of where we were. I couldn't find it in the fiction section and the librarian standing near me asked if she could help. I am lucky enough to work near a fabulous library that I frequent on many lunch breaks. I love holiday books for getting me in the spirit (even if Halloween is still a few weeks off yet) and I like Pearl Buck, so I added it to my list without checking out what it was about. I was skimming the 'currently reading' section of one of the reading groups I belong to when someone mentioned 'Christmas Day in the Morning' by Pearl Buck being one of their favorite holiday books. I have been using Goodreads on my iPhone for a few months now but still am having a hard time seeing all the content features it has to offer. I have to give a quick back story on how a 40-something yr old got this book from the library for herself.

Pearl buck christmas day in the morning