You will find what you need in talking story books

As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.
James Russell Lowell

I was in my forties when I discovered the wonderful world of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Orphaned as a teenager, she began writing children’s stories to support her four younger brothers and sisters.

That is a big load for a teenager to carry, and it is a bigger load than I have ever had to haul. This unstoppable woman overcame the overwhelming odds against her, and she learned a craft that has given the English language some of its most beautiful talking story books.

They help us fight our own battles when the weight of the world seems too much to carry. Somewhere or other, you will find what you need in a talking story book.

In The Secret Garden, one of my favorite talking story books, Mary Lennox is orphaned when her parents die in a cholera epidemic in India. Spoilt and angry, young Mary is brought back to the Yorkshire Moors to live with her wealthy uncle, Archibald Craven.

She is too sophisticated for the simple country folk who work and live at Misselthwaite Manor. Life in England could not be lonelier for Mary: the Manor is shrouded in secrecy, she has no friends, and she expresses no intention of ever having friends in such a dismal place, surrounded by such dreary people.

But Misselthwaite is not as plain as it seems. One day Mary wanders into a secret garden and meets a country boy who talks to the birds. When she discovers the biggest secret of Misselthwaite manor, Mary is changed forever.

When I discovered The Secret Garden, I was living in a damp and dreary house, and I was as lifeless as Archibald Craven.

But Mary Lennox, Dickon, and Colin brought me back from the dead when I heard this story the first time, and whenever I need to be brought back to life again, they are never far away.

It is usually my wife who knows when I need to return to Misselthwaite Manor. With the wisdom and patience that only she is capable of when I have let myself get into a Craven-like moment, I am invited back to the pages of this unforgettable talking story book, where along with Mary, her cousin Colin, and her uncle Archibald, we are miraculously reborn, all five of us.

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret,” C.S. Lewis wrote. “Now that I am fifty I read them openly.

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness.”

When you are ready to put away your fear of childishness, hundreds of great talking story books are waiting for you at Talking-Book-Store.com.