I love fireflies! They are amazing creatures to me, dancing at night, hidden, until they burst forth with a powerful yet brief neon yellow glow. On a summer’s night, I love to stand in the yard and just watch, waiting for the mystical dance of light.

I’ve loved fireflies for as long as I can remember, but for different reasons. Growing up in the west, I never saw an actual firefly until I was married and we moved to the East Coast. But I loved the idea of fireflies before that because of the book Sam and the Firefly by P. D. Eastman. It was one of my favorite children’s stories, so magical that I almost didn’t believe fireflies could really glow, or that they even existed. However, I hoped it was all real.

When I finally saw real-life fireflies I was completely transfixed by them, and that has never waned. I don’t know if that feeling would be different if I had grown up around them, if I would have taken them for granted. I suppose there’s no way to know, but I like it this way. I love the magic in a book becoming magic in real-life. I love the power a book had to transform my imagination in new and wonderful ways, and I love discovering new books that do the same thing. Don’t you?