1.
The theme was monsters. After all, it was just before Halloween.
The kids filed into the library and sat on a carpet at the far end of the room.
Some of the kids were better at this that than others. The girls, of course, were consistently the best. But to be honest, the boys weren’t so wild — just a few who were slow to get settled.
I read them a story, stopping to talk about the pictures, asking sometimes if they knew what a word meant. And then we came to the part where they got to go pick out a book of their very own — one they could put their names in and take home. They wiggled in excitement.
2.
Afterwards we all sat on the carpet together.
“Which book did you get?” “Wow, look at that!” “Can you read that to me?” “What’s that one about?”
At the end of one of these groups, I sat on the carpet in the middle of a bunch of girls and a few boys. We were looking at their books and reading snippets. The girls in particular were thrilled that I was sitting there with them and paying them as much attention as the boys.
3.
And now, their time was up. They were about to go back to their classroom.
“Who will get to line up first?” their teacher asked.
“Who… will… it… be?” She was dragging it out, a trick that worked well, because they were all silent and sitting up straight with their arms folded around their books.
“Ok boys. You may line up.”
4.
“Boys?” I whispered to the girls. “Boys!? It should have been the girls. You guys rocked!”
And then…
“Girls, now you may go.”
They all stood up and went to get in line.
And then one of them came back. Without saying anything, she leaned against me and gave me a hug. And then she ran quickly and got back in line.