When I was a child, I saved all my money to buy comic books! Not just any comic books but the ones called Classics Illustrated and Classics Illustrated Junior. The former were condensed, comic book versions of some of the greatest books ever written, and the latter were the greatest of fairy tales. At one time, I owned them all and I am so fortunate that one of my sons, a serious comic book collector, has preserved those of these treasures that survived my growing up and many household moves over the years. I credit these comic books for my love of books today. I was only about 5 years old when I began collecting the fairy tales—some well-known—and others just as wonderful but lesser known like The Penny Prince, The Wild Swans and Silly Hans. When I was in grade school, I moved up to the Classics. Can you imagine a second grader reading The Last of the Mohicans? In comic book form they were readable for a young child and I loved them. I later made it a goal to read the entire book version of each of these classics. We all know the benefits of reading…
