"It was a dark and stormy night." 
 I read this book with my five year old. Our copy is ancient, with yellowed pages and a taped up spine, and my sister's name printed in pencil in the front cover. It all seems so fitting for a book about love and family. 
 The story is a little disjointed, with ideas and events thrown in almost haphazardly, and the ending is rather abrupt. But on the way, it trusts in children's intelligence. It doesn't weaken its vocabulary, it doesn't hide from tough concepts. At five, my son was unfamiliar with many of the references, but thanks to this book we've now spent hours listening to Bach and Beethoven and looking up paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. I even got the opportunity to explain the basics of relativity! The best children's books challenge their audience, and without talking down to them. 
 The central message of love is an important one. I barely got through the last ten pages with tears streaming down my face, and that was a teachable moment too. 
 The book isn't perfect, but it's easy to see why it's a classic.