And when I found a beautiful little book called Kate Greenaway's Birthday Book for Children, with poetry by Mrs Sale Barker, the little person in me had to have it. Someone had grown up with this book, annotated the pages over the years with people's names and birthdates, and loved it to tatters. It's beautiful.
And a little disturbing. If you were born on February 7th, would you want to be greeted every year by this verse?
A kite, one day, flew up in the sky,
To try and reach the sun;
He failed, and he fell with a broken string,
And sighed, "It can't be done!"
And woe to those born on the 3rd of June who have this to enjoy on their special day:
This weak little girl sheds a tear
She quakes and she trembles with fear;
But it's only a fish, though not in a dish,
So she need not display such great fear.
Mrs Grandguy says the verses reflect real life, but I'm going on record as saying that a year full of verses about infirmity, fatness, fear, rebuke and broken chairs is not what I had in mind when I exited the womb ☺
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