Get a Stinkin' Book

I am excited to participate in Teachers Write virtual writing camp hosted by author Kate Messner. If you haven't heard about it, check it out! Join in! 


"Library's closed!" barked the media specialist from inside her dimly lit office. 


"B.b...but my teacher said I have to pick out a book," he hoped to garner a little sympathy. After all his teacher had been hounding him every stinkin' day to find out what he was reading. The media specialist half-heard him and waved him on by, anxious to get back to her phone call.


Truth is he wasn't reading anything. Sure, he carried around a couple different Goosebumps books, but those were just so Teacher would see that he was reading. He'd dutifully open up to a place a little farther into the book every day and then spend the next 30 minutes daydreaming about whatever....sports mostly...and sometimes girls. 


But then his act was revealed. That Teacher carried around her notebook in class and would talk to kids, asking them what they were reading and what page they were on and what they thought about what they were reading. Whatever. So now he had to find a book besides the well-worn, unread Goosebumps books that had been his daydream companions.


He slunk on into the library despite the warning from the media specialist. She was such a dog. All those times the class had visited and he'd only laid eyes on her a couple times and that was to fix the scanner thingy that some kid had accidentally knocked over while trying to check in books.


He got the impression that Teacher was not happy with the barky media specialist either. He'd seen her roll her eyes when the media specialist screeched about using shelf markers or checking out too many books in one week. 


And yet, here he was...alone in the library. How was he supposed to find a stupid book in here? He'd thought there was a system or something he'd heard Teacher mention about finding stuff. She would wander around the library with the students and pick up books here and there to hand to kids. Those nerdy girls were always at her elbow asking nerdy girl questions. It was easy to avoid Teacher in the library. 


Teacher talked about lots of books in class. Sometimes she'd show us the covers and go on and on about how a book was so amazing. She always said, "Read what you LOVE." There was one she talked about a week or so ago that she'd just read. It was about a dog or some dogs in Alaska. The memory was fuzzy, but he tried to recall the details. Seems like the book was about a dog, but the title had another animal in it...wolf? Fox? Yeah...that was it...Something Fox. He'd search for that. It was a thin book which he liked and it was about dogs. Could be worse.


Now, where would Something Fox be in this library? It wasn't a huge library, but it was big enough that he could search unnoticed by Barky in her office. If only she'd actually help him. He knew she'd know. Shoot, maybe she wouldn't. He wasn't sure if she actually read any of those books she protected so fiercely. He'd never heard HER talk about books like she loved them.