My mother did not grow up rich, but she was the first of her generation within a large family and she remembers feeling spoiled at Christmas by receiving gifts from her aunts and uncles.

A great aunt gave her a Shirley Temple doll “to look at…not to play with,” and she was in the third grade when she got the first of the Mickey Mouse watches she has worn all her life. But she will tell you that her favorite gifts were the books she received as a child that developed a love for reading she shared with her children and that continues today.

I remember hearing my father on the phone with my nephew, comparing notes on the first of the Harry Potter books, which they were enjoying simultaneously. My brother complains to this day about my giving that book to his son, who was too young to read such a big book on his own.

That meant that my brother had to read it out loud, pronouncing words that are now part of our everyday language but which were brand new to all of us back then. My brother would have been happy to hide away somewhere and read the book silently to himself, but the pleasure the story telling gave his son made the challenge worthwhile.

As a child, I thought my family was rich because we could always stop for ice cream on family road trips and because I got to order two books from the Weekly Reader magazine that was distributed at my school two or three times a year. The books were always paperbacks, and they generally cost somewhere between $.95 and $1.49 each. To me, they were an extravagant blessing.

It was only as an adult that I realized that the evidence of our family wealth was a result of my parents’ shared love of ice cream and books, a blessing nonetheless.

While we have been known to read cereal cartons if a book wasn’t handy, many of the books my family has loved over the years have had animals as the heroes, or at least the central theme. Some of those included “Black Beauty,” “Misty of Chincoteague,” “Big Red” and “Marley and Me.”

There’s also books by Lillian Jackson Braun, James Herriott or Dick Francis. These stories of animals have entertained, educated and inspired me.

So when you are looking for gifts, particularly for the youngest people on your Christmas list, consider including books and perhaps books about animals. Developing a love for both books and animals may be the best gift you can give them and one that will last a lifetime.

— Pets and the People Who Love Them is brought to you by your friends at the Athens Limestone Animal Shelter. To adopt a dog or cat, please visit the Athens-Limestone Animal Shelter at 1701 U.S. 72 (behind Limestone Veterinary Clinic), visit our Facebook page or call us at 256-771-7889. Email your questions and story ideas to me at PetsAndPeople@charter.net, and I’ll check with the experts (veterinarians, animal behaviorists, etc.) and get back to you in a future column.