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Platero and I- Special time with my dad.

One of my fondest memories growing up was my father reading a very special book just to me. As my siblings were upstairs getting ready for bed, I would sit on the arm of his favorite chair and he would read chapters from the book, Platero and I. Platero and I is a very interesting book, written by Juan Ramon Jimenez (a 1956 Nobel Prize Winner) and translated by Eloise Roach, about the author and conversations with his donkey as they travel through Spain. I choose the book from his book shelf because of the donkey and man on the cover but what I found inside was a wonderful story about a land I have never been to visit. In fact a noted French journal, Figaro, said “If there are in world literature two or three books capable of giving back to the people their childhood soul, Platero and I is among them”. As my father read each page, I would envision their travels and the people they met along the way. When I left to you to college, one of the greatest things I brought with me was that book. I still have it, it sits on a table in the living room and every time I look at it, the fondest memories of a little girl sitting with her father reading are remembered and cherished.


~ Suzanne Sease