Re: damaged books

[Kathy <klibrary@HARBORNET.COM>]

I have found that the students love to hear personal stories. I've told
them about the time my dad fell through the ice and survived - how the kids
in my neighborhood had forts and we captured each other and were held
prisoner until either our mothers' called us in for dinner or the street
lights came on (which ever came first) - and other stories including the
time I was in the 5th grade and plotted an elaborate plan to sneak a new
geography text book out of the classroom and bring it home where I could
secretly read beyond the place where the class was reading and pour over
it's pages at my leisure.  I was seduced by it's promise of distant places,
exotic as well as curious pictures of people in unfamiliar dress (and
undress). I even liked the way the new pages smelled (I can still smell
them - a little like the pages of a new Architectural Digest just out of
it's plastic bag). This is where I can make the story long or short. Short
version is...I resort to reading the book in the bathroom - the only room
with a lock on the door. My mother would get suspicious if I stayed in the
bathroom too long with the door locked, unless....I was taking a bath >
book drops into bath tub > Mother makes me confess to teacher (male teacher
I had a crush on) > he just happens to have a work bench in the back of the
room where the book sits in the press for a week with water dripping onto
the floor. He treated me gently > kept the whole thing a secret from the
other students > did not  scold me > told me he was proud of me for
returning the book and telling the truth. It was the closest I had ever
been to him (physically and otherwise) > he placed a fatherly hand on my
shoulder > he had unusually bad breath which disappointed me, but while I
fell out of love with him, I discovered other secrets about myself (another
story).

I continue to read in the tub - having developed a real talent for
controlling the temperature of the water with my feet. Occasionally I drop
a book in the tub (Beach Music soaked up more than it's share of water)
and... I went through an awful period of knocking my coffee mug onto the
floor. I have resorted to a stool that works as a "tub side desk" and is
also a perfect solution for the grandchildren to reach the sink  while they
admire themselves in the mirror.

Kathy Mladenich
Librarian/KidSpeak Advisor
Artondale Elem. School
Gig Harbor, WA

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