The Best Book of All
by Karrlin Bain
A copy of the book.....
A copy of the book.....
by the author Mike McClintock
Copy of book created by Mrs. Tutt and Karrlin Bain
I LOVE this quote by Francis Thompson! I was lucky enough as a child to have my very own REAL fairy godmother! Her name was Mrs. Tutt and she taught me how to read and spent so much magical time with me!
This book taught me that as I child I was very much loved by someone that could have easily just chosen to NOT impact my life in the greatest way imaginable! Mrs. Tutt could have taken the much easier route and just remained an anonymous person that lived down the street from the house where I grew up. Instead Mrs. Tutt and her husband would risk their own hearts by inviting me into a wonderful friendship.
They established an active and wonderful grandparent/parent/teacher" role with me in our relationship. They would give me a childhood that had magic in it. I say they risked their hearts because, looking back, I know they loved me SO very much. When I was six we moved to another city and I rarely saw them again. My heart missed them and I know they missed me too.
The story goes a little something like this... (click here to see my blog post titled My Life in Books if you wish to read the whole thing)...
Books have always been my favorite things, ever since Mrs. Tutt taught me to read when I was a very little girl. I grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, in a little green house on Stark Street. When I was three I walked down the street by myself and told Mr. Tutt in his driveway “mungry”, which translated meant “I’m hungry.” With that I earned some chocolate cake and also the best friends I would ever meet. I know that angels guided me to this man and his wife who was inside the house, because they became my own personal angels, taking care of me, loving me and best of all teaching me to read!
Mr. Tutt was a retired principle and Mrs. Tutt was a retired second grade teacher. They had no children of their own. I became theirs in a sense. I don’t have as many memories of being at home with my mom, brother and sister, or at my dad’s house. I just remember being at the Tutt’s house, and every single magical detail about it.
Mrs. Tutt read to me from her wonderful collection of books and also taught me to read. She made stories and books come alive and seem exactly like the magic that they are meant to be! At some point I remember that she brought me to her school district and had my reading ability tested. She discovered that I was reading at a second grade level at the age of about five years old, before I ever attended school.
Mr. Tutt was a retired principle and Mrs. Tutt was a retired second grade teacher. They had no children of their own. I became theirs in a sense. I don’t have as many memories of being at home with my mom, brother and sister, or at my dad’s house. I just remember being at the Tutt’s house, and every single magical detail about it.
Mrs. Tutt read to me from her wonderful collection of books and also taught me to read. She made stories and books come alive and seem exactly like the magic that they are meant to be! At some point I remember that she brought me to her school district and had my reading ability tested. She discovered that I was reading at a second grade level at the age of about five years old, before I ever attended school.
To finish THIS story about Mrs. Tutt and to read about MOST of my favorite books you can continue reading the post here:
My Life in Books
My Life in Books
THIS Post, however, is about a book...
The Best Book of All
Mrs. Tutt, while teaching me to read and write, copied the entire book A Fly Went By written by Mike McClintock
and illustrated by Fritz Siebel
Of course Mrs. Tutt, a retired school teacher, would know that to complete this project with me would help me love to learn to read and write.
If you read "My Life in Books" you learn that at times books have made my life complete... MOST times actually. Mrs. Tutt helped me become the avid reader, writer, and person that I was meant to be. This idea of this book (pictured below) represents all that the Tutts did for me. It took a long time to make this book copy... time we spent together. They were generous with their valuable time, home and even their funds. They were very loving and kind and taught me many things.
As an adult I will always remember how much time and love they gave me. I try to remember that the little gestures are important. I try to remember to go out of my way to create friendships with many people. You just never know which friendship might help or impact somebody's life (even mine) in a great way, the way that friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Tutt impacted mine.
Mrs. Tutt wrote (copied) most of the words in the book
in her own lovely handwriting (pages and pages!)
in her own lovely handwriting (pages and pages!)
She DID have me write (copy) out some parts.
If I had to guess I would say we did this when I was four or five years old. I was six when we moved away from them - and that was so sad because I loved them so much!
If I had to guess I would say we did this when I was four or five years old. I was six when we moved away from them - and that was so sad because I loved them so much!
The Book's Cover...
The "Writing by Mis. Tutt Pictures By Karrlin P." part of this page...
Mrs. Tutt did a lot of writing for me in this book!!!
I wrote THIS very important page... the last page...
Page Seventeen....
Page Seventeen....
The back cover... so cute.
Thank you so very much Mr. and Mrs. Tutt for making such
an important and amazing difference in my life!!!
I was just a tiny little plant when you found me
but you nourished me wonderfully!!!
I was just a tiny little plant when you found me
but you nourished me wonderfully!!!
