Book vouchers

are not simply the piece of card they are written on.
I bought one yesterday. The Senior Cat had asked me to get one. It is for the daughter of the person who comes to help him shower. We have met this child a number of times. She is about to turn ten. When it is school holiday time she comes and sits and reads while her mother helps the Senior Cat. She also loves to draw and shows considerable talent at that. I have talked to her about the sort of thing she likes to read. She borrows books from my shelves.
So the Senior Cat asked me, "Can you get me a book voucher for..... please? It's her birthday on Friday."
Of course. It is a way of showing our appreciation for her mother's always cheerful and able assistance.
But why a book voucher and not a book? We don't know which books she owns - although we know she has some. I have a fair idea of the sort of thing she likes to read - but she may already have it. Yes, both reasons not to buy an actual book.
But it is much more than that. It means that this child will visit the local indie book shop and choose her own book. Both those things are important. We know her mother will be more than happy to take her there.
I can remember taking MsW when she was very young. It was the Christmas after her mother died. Her father didn't feel like celebrating Christmas in the least but we both knew that it was essential to do the best we could for her. He took us both to the bookshop and went to do some other things while we looked at books. Ms W chose one for herself. We chose one for her father - the money she had saved was nowhere near enough but that didn't matter then. And, when she was looking at some of the things in the children's corner, I bought yet another to give her later.
We went each year for Christmas and birthday. Her father and I eventually swapped actual money for vouchers to be spent there. She is old enough to go alone now but she still remembers that first visit. I remember her clinging on to me. She was almost afraid to touch the books even though she had washed her hands three times before going in there.
"You can buy one - any one at all from these shelves," I told her showing her the special children's area. There were books she knew and books she did not know. It took a while to choose just one. It took a while for several years. Now she is likely to go in there with a specific book in mind - and even ask the shop if it can be ordered. She is prepared to wait for something she really wants. 
I saw her in there last weekend. She was buying a book voucher for a friend for her birthday.
"It was the best present ever," she told me once, "It was a book and I got to choose."
I think we have trained her well.