The school year ends and my students plunge into the flurry of graduation activities with determination and gusto. Thank-you notes, pizza parties, signing the Year Books, and photographs with “Mr. Wally” in their caps and gowns. And this is only the First Grade!
I decide to make an appearance at the last PTA meeting to thank the parents for sharing their children with Book PALS throughout the year. I was introduced with accolades by one of my second graders who I named “Marigold”, the daughter of King Midas. Afterwards, the parents introduced themselves as the Mother of Mark. “Oh you mean ‘Muffin’”, I exclaim. Or, as the Father of “Nichole”, “You mean my ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’”? Each week as I read a story I knight the kids with new names. Athena, Perseus, Firebird, Aladdin, Huckleberry Finn, Hamlet, Zeus and on and on. Each week I greet the children as my Lords and Ladies, and bid them good-bye as my Prince and Princesses. According to the parents, their imagination has becomes boundless. One parent said to me, “you don’t look like you are 165 years old, but if my child says you are I guess she knows best!”
The students advance or transfer or move, and different kids will appear next year. My dilemma is whether to follow the familiar students to their next grade or discover the new fresh, “shinning morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school”.
Regardless of my decision, I look forward to being presented in the fall to my Kings and Queens…as their new Court Jester!
Wallace Wood
Mr. Wally of Book PALS New York City
BookPALS
http://www.bookpals.net/content/article.php?story=2006062713590961