Costco, Polar Bears and Meetings

Isaac periodically has the dubious pleasure of attending meetings with me.  It's just too much trouble to leave school, go the meeting, go back to school to pick him up, then get to wherever we have to be next.  So he gets out of school early about once a month.  He starts off excited, then after two hours of sitting and being quiet he is bored to tears.  Surprisingly, though, he is always very good -- snacks and his Kindle help.

There was a meeting a few weeks ago that caught his interest more than the previous ones.  Encouraging boys to read more, specifically African American boys, is an important initiative in our school system right now.  So, as librarians, my colleagues and I have been an important voice in the discussions and have sat through numerous trainings on the subject.   At this particular meeting, a consultant was sharing some of the best books for boys published last year.

The day before the meeting, Isaac and I had been to Costco to stock up and he had browsed through the books while I meandered through the clothes.  He brought back a copy of Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis and asked if I would buy it for him.  While I encourage his reading and have been thrilled that he has been so eager to spend time with a book, we are also trying to teach him that money doesn't grow on trees, so I told him he was welcome to buy the book with his own money.  He agreed!  Then he asked if I would buy the second book so he could have both.  Um, no, but I said if he read the book and liked the series I would think about buying him the next one.  And we left Costco with a new book, among other things.

Timmy Failure was in Isaac's bookbag at my meeting the next day and he was excited to hear the presenter mention this book on her recommended list for boys.  He even held the book up to show the group and read the first sentence aloud for them to hear at the presenter's request.  It starts off like this, "It is harder to drive a polar bear into someone's living room than you think."

Timmy is the founder and CEO of his own detective agency and his partner is his pet polar bear, Total.  Hence, trying to drive a polar bear into a living room.  The book is written by the creator of Pearls Before Swine.  On the front cover is a blurb from Jeff Kinney, which caught Isaac's attention, and I explained that often other authors will read and recommend books that they like.  Knowing that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid author thinks Timmy Failure is cool made Isaac smile.

Timmy Failure was read and enjoyed.  Isaac considered donating it to the school library when he finished it, but then realized he couldn't take it back later, so he decided to hold on to it -- in case he wants to read it again.

We made another trip to Costco the other night and I offered to buy the second book, but they did not have it.  There was much disappointment, but we will find it soon.  In the meantime, Isaac has a bookbag full of other books to read, which still amazes me.