What book are you most grateful for? This one is it. It started my life long love of books and can be counted in to keep the attention of any class I substituted in. Literally Preschool to High school if I read it to them. My boys loved it. The granddaughter loved it and even though the good guys save the gold from the pirates. There is humor without anyone dying in how they use their brains to do it. The only complaint is always that the shark is called “a big Fish” which is true but kids feel smarter than the author when they loudly insist that it’s a SHARK. I loved it enough that when the pages all fell out I laminated them and taped them all back in with packaging tape. I made the poster of my boys as characters.
I think it would be Enid Blyton, not sure now which was my first, maybe Fairy Stories. (it was at least one of the first I bought as a child of 8 or so). although I had so many little golden books before that ...
