Each page had a tabs on the side that you pulled, causing the chickens to lay eggs or the horse's tail to move. The center pages popped up a red barn in the middle. That was back when I was learning to read and the letter "J" looked like a soup ladle to me.
My mother and my Pop, her father, were teachers. They both read to all of us often; wonderful books like Hide N Seek Fog and the Lonely Doll series. Christmas and birthdays always involved stacks of books like Little Women, Island of the Blue Dolphins, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and other edifying books.
I would sit in a blue patterned wing chair in the living room for hours transported to New York City at the turn of the century or Massachusetts during the Civil War. I am so glad that my niece, Piper, carries on this tradition...despite Facebook and other electronic enticements.
So Saturday was a red barn kind of day. I find that weathered silo very beautiful.