SUSAN LOESCH

CATS IN THE STACKS

There’s nothing like a good story to end the week! My 5th and 6th graders came for their weekly library time and we stuck to our rule of “Books before cats!” We did a library skills lesson on the online catalog and ways we can use it to search, and the students got their books chosen and checked out.

They then reminded me that I’d said I’d read a book to them, a new one to our library. It is called Ham the Astrochimp, by Richard Hilliard and is about Ham, the chimpanzee who was America’s very first “space pioneer.” The book was a gift from a real “rocket scientist” with NASA, the daughter of one of our teachers.

As we headed toward the bean bags, Makayla asked, “Can Alex listen with us?”

Well, sure, why not! So the kids sat on the bean bags and Alex settled into his bed right with us.

Of course “Books before cats” is much easier to stick to when Alex isn’t right in the middle of things!

“How old is Alex?” asked Brandon.

Soon came the question “Why does Alex have whiskers on the top of his head?” from Makayla.

That question took a while to answer and everyone had to feel said whiskers!

The kids, not being familiar with the beginnings of our space program, were spellbound, often asking, “Did that really happen?”

We all had a good time and I was reminded that it is not just the younger kids who enjoy a story hour. It is also older kids and cats!