It's like the Washing Machine! Only Who Eats the Books? | Mentoring in the Middle

It's like the Washing Machine! Only Who Eats the Books?



Michael Vey, When books go missing from your classroom library
Late last spring, I read the first Michael Vey book, The Prisoner of Cell 25 to one of my classes.  This Science Fiction series never fails to ignite a furious exchange of books, as kids move on to the others in the series.  Books go flying off my shelves, kids negotiate to read over weekends while others have plans; it's all pretty amazing.

As students were reading away, someone announced that he was waiting for the fourth book but couldn't find it.  We searched high and low; my check-out system (Booksource) hadn't failed; someone had neglected or forgotten to check it out.

Not wanting to stop the momentum of reading, I bought the book one weekend, and handed it proudly to this very hungry reader who'd been eagerly anticipating its arrival.

Three weeks later, it was the end of the year.
Students returned their book, we put them back on shelves.  And lo and behold, Book 4 was missing.

Again.

Students searched lockers, homes, we sent a Remind 101 message to parents.

No luck.

On the last day of school, as he was boarding the bus, one of my students casually mentioned that his brother, whom I'd taught the previous year, had never returned a book of poetry to me.  It was still sitting on his bookshelf at home.

I was a bit perturbed, to say the least, so using my kindest words, I emailed parents to ask if they would return the book to our school office sometime over the summer.

The next day, I received a mortified email from the boys' dad.  He not only offered to return the poetry book immediately, but knowing how much both his sons had enjoyed the Michael Vey books, he offered to replace the missing book.  Which was very kind.

Today, guess who comes to visit me?  The boy I had last year, the younger brother.  And guess what he had in his hands?

Yup.

"It was stuck at the bottom of my binder and I didn't notice it."

What?!

Ah, the joys of being a Reading teacher!

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