Funny story about how I got a worn copy of this book, and why I wanted it.

There are mice at the school. Or I should say there were mice - they are all gone now, but for awhile they bravely peeked out during class and occasionally made a break for it across the room. Some lucky ones were released to the farthest end of the park behind the school (they probably became fox dinner, but they had a better chance out there). Now that the mice are gone, we are finding the damage they left behind. In the kindergarten classroom, books were in the storage closet. It seems that the glue on hardback books is appealing to mice - there were about twenty books with tiny little gnaw marks. Sadly these books are now trash - they are tainted with mouse germs.

My job was to clean off and sort out the books - those that were not gnawed on were sanitized with a wipe and saved. The others went into the box of doom. It breaks my heart to see any book ruined, much less thrown out.  Going through the books, in the last few I came across one I recognized from my mother in law's house. The Old Black Witch was a treasured Lapp family favorite. Mark remembers reading from it and how the witch made blueberry pancakes. When I saw the book in the box I was excited - it wasn't damaged, only worn. Would the teacher, Suzanna, want to keep it?

I was so thrilled to bring the book home, and to present it to Mark - a gift of his past. A book that symbolizes his youth. Thank you, Suzanna, for parting with this book. And for helping me pass on something meaningful to my daughter - the story isn't all that special, but what the book represents is.