Childhood Favorite: Follow My Leader

Synopsis: 
When one of his friends accidentally throws a lit firecracker at him, putting Jimmy in the hospital, he never imagined that he still wouldn't be able to see once the bandages were removed from his face.  Now, he needs to relearn how to walk and how to read, and other things that he used to take for granted.  Then, he gets the chance to work with a seeing-eye dog called Leader, but learning to work with the dog is just as hard as all the rest.  The end results, just might be worth all the work, though.

Review:

*** For these Childhood favorite reviews, I'm going to do it a little different.  Its obvious that I love the book, and its stuck with me for years, so I'll just explain why.***

This book was written in 1957, but when I read it in the late 80s, it didn't seem dated at all.  You could feel Jimmy's frustration and at times you got frustrated with him even though you saw how hard adjusting to this new way of life was.  Watching him learn to work with Leader and come to trust him, was something I never forgot, and I think I loved that dog as much as Jimmy did.

This book was a great insight into a world that I will probably never enter.  It felt real, and was completely accessible for me even as a child.  I would recommend this book to anyone, and in fact I think its one of those stories that everyone should read, because it gives them a new understanding of others.

When I first decided I wanted a new copy of this book a couple of years ago, I couldn't find it in print (though maybe they were just sold out on Amazon), and sadly couldn't find it on Paperback swap either.  Thankfully I found a secret stash of books at my mother's and my old copy was in there.  I'm happy to say though, that this book is in print again.  Also, you should take a look at the reviews on Amazon, when I found it there, the top review was written by the granddaughter of the author, and it was truly touching.