A beautiful story of true love, sacrifice, and compassion. A classic. ( )

I'm sure I must have encountered this short story at some point in my student career. When my son came home from school telling me that he had read in in 7th grade language arts, I wanted to refresh my memory. This is a lovely, sad, and thoughtful story. It's a classic for a reason! ( )

This is not the version of my book I wanted to add here today. I recently acquired a very old copy of this story, in a hard cover, box version, with lovely illustrations by Kevin King that was owned by either my stepfather in his childhood or his mother.

I still kind of both love and do not love this story. It's such a great love, to each give up their most precious object because they decide the joy of the one with them is worth even more than that, and yet it is a story ridiculed to irony. So I'm just....waffly on it.

It gets a three. But I'm still insanely pleased to have this specific copy of it, with it's age and person history. ( )

The other reviwers have done a fine job, so this review will be tiny.

This book will always be engraved into my thoughts and into my memory. It's one of the tales that helped define me and strangely seems to surface quite frequently in my conversations.

If you haven't yet READ IT NOW! ( )

I read this long ago, but forgot about it until now after reading a review. So, finding out it was free and short, I reread it. It took about 5 minutes, and was well worth it. It is a perfect illustration of what gift giving and love should be.
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