Avi

word craft

blog

Gifts

Over the years I have signed many books. Many a time I have won­dered what hap­pened to them. In fact, I once had a dream in which I had stum­bled into a gigan­tic ware­house.  Once inside I dis­cov­ered it was filled with thou­sands of my books—all of them pre­vi­ous­ly signed by me. I was nev­er quite sure if this was a night­mare or a very fun­ny dream.

Now and again I have stum­bled upon signed copies in used bookstores.

Still, one wonders …

But then, I recent­ly received this letter:

Bright shadowDear Avi,

On Octo­ber 21st in 1992, you vis­it­ed ____________ school in ___________. My father was excit­ed to hear of your vis­it but I was elat­ed. You were one of my favorite authors and I had been devour­ing books! When my father explained that meet­ing an author was not a good excuse to miss school, I was devastated.

As a con­so­la­tion he asked you to sign Bright Shad­ow for me. I was awed and mes­mer­ized by the sto­ry but hon­ored that it start­ed with, “Best wish­es to  _________.”

It is now one of my daughter’s favorites, and she loves the fact that you took the time to per­son­al­ize the book for me.

As I pass it on to my daugh­ter, I can’t help but won­der how far my father’s gift will car­ry on in our fam­i­ly. Thank you for giv­ing my fam­i­ly adventures.

It’s the sea­son for gifts. And this note sure­ly is a fine one.

2 thoughts on “Gifts”

  1. I per­son­al­ly will keep the Char­lotte Doyle book I had you sign three times for the rest of my life. Even if I get rid of all my oth­er books, I will keep that one. I like the idea of pass­ing pre­cious books along to our kids!

    Reply
  2. Many years ago I attend­ed a read­ing con­fer­ence in Den­ver, Col­orado. My son, a fourth grad­er back then, had been devour­ing every book you wrote. His favorite was The Good Dog. I took his copy to the con­fer­ence with me and had you sign it at one of your ses­sions. Just recent­ly, as my son (who is now in his sec­ond year of col­lege) was going through old books in his room to give away, he found your signed book. He opened it, read the inscrip­tion, and put it back on his book­shelf with the com­ment, “I’m keep­ing this one.” Your signed book will always have a place in our home.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.