Reading to the Very End

As much as we all look forward to the end of the year, here's what I hate:

• Reminding children every day for the last 7 days of school to bring in their library books.
• Emailing parents to remind their children to bring in their library books.
• Emailing parents to send in their own library books or pay for them.
• Getting snippy responses from parents.
• Getting ignored by parents.
• Getting irritated responses from children.
• Getting a check for $150 for lost books, three years in a row, from a child who would rather have the parents pay than track down all those books.

So here's what I love:

• Checking out thousands and thousands of books to parents for the summer:
• A fresh stash! Excited kids who can't wait to start their summer reading!
• Children talk about their good fortune in terms of books, their treasure, their wealth, all waiting for them to devour.
• Meeting new families and checking out books to them.
• Booktalking all my favorite books.
• The faces of the children at the annual sing-along.

And I really love getting little thank you notes from children as they reflect on their year in the library. This morning's mail (spelling and punctuation intact):

"...Thank you for reading about Sir Gawain and all the other ones. I hope that I don't stop reading picture books, even though I'm 11 and will only get older."

"Some librarians are mean but not you." (boy, age 10)

"I loved all the book talk's.. Oh!! and my favorite one at the beginning of the year with the Homer Simpson screaming slide show." (girl, age 11)

"I like when you read books to cats. [?]" (boy, age 6)

"I like when you get me bokos." (girl, age 5)

"I like when we check out books at the check out line and the goat sound." (boy, age 6)
(Our circulation computer is set to make a goat sound as auditory confirmation of a scan. My mnemonic device is "goat means go" and "sheep means ....")

"You're a lot better than the librarian I had at my old school. She was scary. I don't think any other librarians read to fifth and sixth graders." (boy, age 11)

"I like when you read. You mak greate voices." (girl, age 6)

A six year old girl left the library last week and exclaimed, "I can't believe this year has gone by so fast. It feels like you were just showing us all those broken books and throwing the books and tearing up the pages and letting us smell the ones with mold on them." When six year olds wax nostalgic, things are going well.

More posts next fall... Happy summer.