Stealing from kids

3/9/10 Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco, returned

Once again, one downsize led to another. In the process of culling several dozen books from my school collection last week, I discovered this copy of Thunder Cake, which I had forgotten about.

This is an interesting story, which reverses the usual teacher/student dynamic.

Last year I needed Thunder Cake for a demonstration lesson I was planning to teach. As I asked around to find a teacher who might have a copy, a sixth grade girl overheard that I needed it, and offered up her own book.

Students lending books to teachers. Now that's a literature-rich school environment! Love it.

Being the responsible adult in this transaction, I borrowed the book, used it for the lesson, and then buried it on my shelf where it was promptly forgotten. At least by me.

If Libby realized that weird Mr. Dyer had neglected to give her book back, she didn't say anything. Actually, she's certainly savvy enough to have remembered that I had it. She probably just decided that it might be best to chalk it up as lost forever. Don't mess with Mr. Dyer, he's a wild-card. Heck, the guy has to bum his teaching supplies off eleven-year-olds.

And so, as this academic year began, Libby headed off to middle school, while I carried on my merry way at the Guy E. Rowe School, oblivious to my own theft.

There's a chance, of course, that if I were not engaged in the Downsizing Challenge, I might never have returned that book. The pre-downsize Reed would likely have unthinkingly thrown every book into boxes -- to keep, of course -- at the end of the school year. Thunder Cake could well have moved with us to Denver this summer, where it would have almost certainly remained, still packed, in that box for several more years.

Fortunately for the book, Libby, and myself, none of us have to live through that alternate reality. I found the book and sent it over to Libby at the middle school earlier today. Aren't I such a role model?

At least I know she's mature enough to forgive me.