All the Books

A mother comes in to the library with her son, four or five years old, and a list of 12 recommended books.  I'm not sure exactly where the list came from, but I'm guessing it came from her child's school or daycare.  She asked if I would please help her find all of the books on the list.

I asked, in the interest of clarification, "Do you need to get all of these books, or just some of them?"

Her response:  "All of them please."

So I take her book hunting.  We're actually doing really well, tracking down such lovely titles as The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.  Eventually we have a stack of seven or eight books.  As I hand her a lovely Robert Munsch book her eyes grow big.  She looks at the stack, then looks at me and says, "I think this is enough books for now."

The moral of the story:  Twelve books looks pretty manageable on paper, but this number is surprisingly heavy to carry.

The second moral:  It's okay to pace yourself.  No need to READ ALL THE BOOKS!**

Image not mine.  Parody of a lovely image from Hyperbole and a Half.
Origin of the parody unknown.  It seems to be all over the interwebs.

**You can read as many books as you want, or as few as you want, as fast or as slow as you want.  No pressure.  It's supposed to be fun.