Therese tells of her joy when Reverend Mother suggested upon her first visit to the Carmel that when Therese entered she be renamed after her sister Pauline’s Carmelite name, “Therese of Jesus.” Little Therese will keep her name, but become Therese of the Child Jesus. She also reveals her fondness for the pictures and books that filled her with enthusiasm for chivalry and saintliness (Joan of Arc, for example), and she held special fascination with the poem the Little Flower of the Divine Prisoner.

Therese discloses that even at 10 years old she knew she would become a great saint, but not by her merit; she would become saintly only by God's graces. She also understood that all true glory is that which lasts forever.