My good friend Emily is the Title I Reading teacher at the middle school where I work. Last fall she organized Title I Reading Night at our local Chick-fil-A to encourage reading for our students and their families. I wanted to support her and our students by attending, so after work that afternoon, I went to pick Eli & Alanna up from their school, and brought them down to our house for a date night. After Dallas got home from work we headed over to Chick-fil-A.
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| "Chick-Fil-A" by JeepersMedia is licensed under CC BY 2.0 |
Emily had arranged some prize drawings for kids who attended, and she included Eli & Alanna in the “pool” by giving them each a ticket. A little later when she was calling out winning tickets, Eli’s number was called, and he went up to spin the wheel for his prize, which was a Dr. Seuss grab bag filled with small gifts.
Here is the first notable thing: Rather than taking the bag, he assumed that he was to choose one gift from the bag. (This is the difference between a first grader and a middle schooler—well, at least one of the differences). I couldn’t see everything that was in there, but there was a book, and that’s what Eli chose--no surprise there!
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| "photos 030911 011" by mclib dot net is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 |
However, when he brought the book--Making Lemonade--to our table and I read the back cover, it was easy to see that this was not a book that would be appropriate for Eli. (Frankly, I’m not sure I would consider it appropriate for middle school students either, but the division reading specialist had brought it as part of the giveaways.) I only got far enough in the synopsis to learn that the protagonist was a 17-year old girl with two children by different fathers….and that was enough for me. My goal then became to see if I could make sure the book ended up somewhere else.
I explained to Eli that this book was written for older kids, and asked if he would like me to see if I could find someone who would be willing to exchange his book for another one. "No thank you,” he said. Shortly after that it was time to leave.
For the next chapter in the saga, you have to know that Eli, who was at the time a first grader, was in a second grade reading group at school. We left Chick-fil-A and were just climbing into the car when Eli looked at me with the expression of one for whom the light bulb has just lit up. “Grammie!" he cried. “I could give my book to someone in my reading group at school!” (Because they are “older” and the book was written for older kids….get it?) I told him that was very thoughtful, but this book was actually written for kids who were even older than second grade.
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| "Elementary School students working in a library setting." by Government of Prince Edward Island is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 |
“Well,” he said, “then I could give it to Miss Turner” (his teacher). Before I could open my mouth to respond to that, Eli thoughtfully added, “But Miss Turner probably already knows how to make lemonade.” (Insert laughing-til-you’re-crying emoji here) 😂
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| "Sunny Day Lemonade" by Kenn Wilson is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 |
I must say that my sometimes-jaded-middle-school-counselor-heart was lifted by the sweet innocence and goodness of this little boy, demonstrated that evening through this exchange.
Epilogue: There was a satisfactory ending to this tale: Grandpa Dallas offered to buy the book from Eli for $1, who immediately accepted the offer and announced: “Now I will have three dollars and forty-five cents!”
