SUSAN LOESCH
CATS IN THE STACKS

The final Accelerated Reader rally has come and gone! Our little band of two dozen elementary students outdid themselves this year, reading about 1,200 books, with over half being Footsie’s Favorites.

Barney was on hand as the kids gathered to get their prizes and reading posters.

He watched proudly as Makayla won the trophy for reaching the highest percentage over her goal, 260%, and got a hug from her as she showed it to him.

I had dreaded this rally a bit. Last year had been such a big year for Footsie, with his newspaper article and all the things he participated in on campus.

At the end of the year the elementary students designed their own t-shirt for everyone who reached their AR goal.

It was bright yellow with a black cat on it and the caption, “Big Footsie says, “Reading is Purrrr-fect.” He was on hand at last year’s final rally and got a shout-out from our superintendent.

We were looking forward to a restful summer and a fun 2010 school year.

After Footsie’s death, Alex took over the job with so much style, filling an empty spot in both the library and in our hearts and we expected to see him at many AR rallies to come, but of course that was not to be.

Still it was fun seeing the kids’ reaction to their reading posters and touching that Alex and Snugglebunny were represented.

It was a little bittersweet, though, and left me feeling sad.

Barney did a great job at the rally and I know that we will see great things from him and the rest of the staff.

Little Hexie is here today.

We had one reading poster picture to take for one of my sixth graders.
She was so busy exploring the library to see what had changed since the last time she was here that we had to bribe her with treats to get her to pose!

Our littlest preschoolers had a bear hunt today, and their teacher had hidden one bear in the library.

When they came in Hexie greeted them and after much petting they finally began searching for their bear.

I think the kids were more interested in visiting with Hexie than hunting. Their teacher and I explained about her missing eye.

Almost as soon as they left, in came my first graders. Hexie helped select a video, and I had this conversation with one of my first graders.

“I like Hexie’s tail. It sure is soft. How did she get just one eye?”

I explained that it had become badly infected when she was a kitten and had to be removed.

He thought about that for a minute and then said, “Oh. OK. I thought it just fell out.”

That is one good thing about working with kids. I can be sad for a minute but never for long. One of them will always say something to make me smile!