When I talk to children about LOVE, I tell them I do not mean the sappy soppy Hollywood version. Rather I mean something else-another kind of love that has to do with what you are ready to give up for another person.
Writers for children usually write from some love they feel for the world around them. And when we love something, we automatically want to share it with others.
During my school visits, I will explain to children that I did not grow up in a very demonstrative culture. For the most part, Scottish people do not indulge in public displays of affection as they might do here in the States - we are after all a nation of introverts!
A story about LOVE that I share with children:
Although my parents were not in the habit of saying, "We love you," to their children, I still knew that I was loved, because of what my parents did. I give this example of my father and I. One day we were at the local library where I was foraging for my books of fairy tales - always a favorite of mine. Back in those days, children were given two library tickets that allowed them to check out two books for a two week period. Adults were given four tickets. But on this particular day, I was desperately yearning for more books: I knew that I would rapidly devour these two books long before I could make another trip to the library. My dad, seeing my crest-fallen face, put aside two of his books, and gave me his two tickets.
So, as I walked out of that library with four books under my arms instead of two, there wasn't a shred of doubt in my little book lover's heart that I was loved, because what greater love could there be, I reasoned, than to give up your library books for another?
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