The LIBRARY

If I didn't know to be really quiet...and I mean REALLY Q-U-I-E-T, then I would have stood up on a table and yelled: "THANK YOU MS. CLAY, FOR A PERFECT FIELDTRIP DAY! (Only because we went to the best place in our whole town and probably in the whole world!) We all got in the buses for our fieldtrip and after the other teacher warned us to be extra extra good and not bad at all...and after Ms. Clay told us we were going to have a nice day, then "we all put our sack lunches in a safe place next to us or in our laps without looking in them", and then we looked out the bus windows. I heard a paper noise and I saw a boy from the other class take a cookie out of his lunch and sneak pieces in his mouth. He'll be sad when we get to our picnic and his cookie is all gone. Some kids just have to 'learn by doing I guess, because they won't learn by listening'. Very sad...v-e-r-y sad. There are consequences you know! That means that we choose stuff and then something happens after that.

Caitlyn and Audrey are sitting in front of us and they are planning Audrey's birthday party for February 4th! They said that they will invite Luci and me! I love Birthday parties! We passed Mr. Lee's variety store where I get to buy gum sometimes, and where I got my glass piggy bank, and where I buy candy hearts that he scoops from the bin with his scooper ...oh! and where I like to look at all of the coloring books and stuff. I'll probably get a coloring book and markers for Audrey's Birthday! We drove past Christiansen's furniture store where they have the farm set in the very back and it even has the fences for the horses and two wagons for the tractors. Luci and I looked out the window alot so we could see where our surprise fieldtrip was going to be!

A boy in the back took somebody's backpack and started passing it around. Luci just rolled her eyes. Sometimes, people need too much attention we think. Our bus went right past the post office and then we turned left and almost went to the swimming pool where I got water up my nose when I took swimming lessons last summer, but then we turned back and I could hardly believe my eyes! The bus was stopping.  OUR FIELDTRIP WAS TO THE EPHRAIM CITY LIBRARY! My mom will not believe this! Maybe they think it is MY Birthday or something.     I absolutely LOVE GOING TO THE LIBRARY!

Ms. Clay said that if we were REALLY and I mean...REALLY QUIET...then we could check out two books each! I looked around at everybody in the whole two classes and tried to spy out who might not be quiet so I could beg them to hold it down so we could each take two books home, but when the huge wooden doors opened...I forgot all about anyone else and wandered into what I call: wonderful!

"Come on Luci," I whispered. "I know the best place for us!" I grabbed her hand and hurried so we could sit by the big red beanbag by the childrens' books. There are fifty-three million books probably. I love to see the illustrations.  (Merriam and Webster): That means the pictures...but it makes people feel extra special to say they illustrate stuff instead of just draw pictures I think. And instead of saying they wrote a book, big people say that they authored a book.  I like big words, so that all works for me. Now when I think about that, maybe I will be an author and an illustrator when I grow up...well, or I might be a mailman lady...because they get to drive on the other side and take packages and surprise people or maybe I will...I don't know...
I'll plan it out on Saturday probably!

Luci is my best friend and so we decided to choose four books together and then trade around when we get home. FOUR BOOKS! That is so hard to choose. I wish we could choose 42 books! I like books about horses, and I like chapter books about mysteries and 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' sort of books. Oh! and books about Brasil because that's where my brother is, and maybe I should get a craft book for my mom because she is making a shelf for my room!

Two of the kids from the other class were laughing and talking outloud by the water-fountain, so we came really really close to packing it all up...but finally Ms. Clay talked to the teacher with the big clipboard and so the that teacher took her board and very sharp pencil and those talky laughy loud boys out to the bus by themselves. That's a consequence for ya!  They should have listened and obeyed.  SAD for them.  NO BOOKS for them. Maybe next time they will get it.

I like books about: space, zoo animals, how to draw, biographies (that's just books about people) and AUTO-biograhies are about somebody who wrote about their own self, because they auto-matically know what to say... since it is them)! There are books that show all the colors, and books about going to other countries and it even shows what they wear and what they like to eat in those places. I found a book about weather and it's all about how the rain drops down after the clouds bump into the mountain and stuff like that. I almost decided to get a book about my favorite movie, but then I saw a book about going to grandma's house and I think I will get that one for sure! Luci found a book about making your own necklace, one about popcorn, one about twins, and three storybooks that we have never ever heard of! We took each book out and turned a couple of pages and then put it carefully back or put it on our giant 'maybe' stack.

It seemed like we were only at the library for 2 minutes when Ms. Clay announced that it was time to choose our final books and take them to the front desk because it was already lunch time. "Oh no Luci!" I whispered. "We have to hurry and choose! That couldn't have been a whole hour Luci." Luci just started putting books back on the shelf except the Pollyanna book and one about poems and stuff. "But what if the very very VERY best books are still on the shelf and we haven't even seen them yet?" I panicked, "HURRY!" Ms. Clay warned us. So, I closed my eyes and picked two books from my best pile...and then very carefully put the other 7 'almost' books back for later! I got a book about Butterflies and a storybook named: A Wagon full of Surprises! and I quick talked Luci out of her poems book because we have to have the book about Going to Grandmas! and we took them to the front desk.

When we left the library in two straight lines, we marched across the hall to a large pretty much empty conference room and then we could finally open our lunches. "Luci, I was so excited for my lunch and special treat, but I would rather go back to the Library and look at books!" She was smack-dab in the middle of a bite of her peanut butter and honey sandwich so she didn't say a word. "When I think about it, Luci!" I smiled, "Eating is like feeding YOU and reading is like feeding your ideas. And I like being hungry for both!"