First book of the new year

Rumpelstiltskin ~ by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, 1986, children's picture book, 40 pages

A miller carelessly boasts that his clever daughter can spin gold from straw.  He is forced by the king to deliver on this claim.  A little man arrives to help the miller's distraught daughter in exchange for her firstborn child.  Later, when the daughter, now the queen, gives birth to her first child, the little man comes to collect.  He agrees to release the queen from her promise if she can learn his name.

The Wikipedia article about the book is fascinating.  According to researchers at Durham University and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, this story originated around 4,000 years ago.  Some versions make the miller's daughter blonde and describe the "straw-into-gold" claim as a careless boast the miller makes about the way his daughter's straw-like blond hair takes on a gold-like luster when sunshine strikes it.

So are you wondering why I chose a children's picture book for my first book of the year?  Old age has been viewed as a time when older people regress to child-like behavior and become dependent on others for help.  Or to put it another way, we are forgetful to the point that someone else needs to take care of us.  Nope, nope, nope!  I choose to define second childhood as being old enough to be playful again and have a little fun!  It would be even more fun (for me) if I had the actual childhood books that my parents read to me when I (their first child) came running to say, "Read this book to me!"

P.S.  That's a baby photo of me, probably too young to understand Rumpelstiltskin.