Book Club

So, like any over-crazed, overwhelmed and over excited teacher, going into last year's school year, I decided I wanted to inspire.  I wasn't sure what that would look like for every student of mine, but I knew I wanted to try... all hundred plus of them.  I read and adapted things others had done before me into my classroom, and one of those adaptions was to help get kids reading more.  I knew that not all of my students would be at the same level and most people, not just junior high students, find a genre they like (mystery, historical fiction, etc) and stick with it for life.  I wanted to be that teacher that introduced a student to "A Wrinkle In Time" or showed a boy the wonders of biographies.  So my brilliant plan was to have a book club.  We'd meet in the mornings on Fridays at 7 am.  The kids could be from all over the school, I didn't care, and they would be able to eat, read, or just listen to a book.  We read all sorts of books and, while it was hard to be there that early, especially when I had to start shoveling the snow for the kids, pregnant and all, it seemed somehow worth it.  

Generally, before we would move on to another book, I'd give my book clubers the choice of a few books.  Some where my choice, others were recommended, and some I just wanted to read myself.  They would chose and then go to the library or Barnes and Nobel or wherever and get the book.  After Christmas break last year, though, we hadn't settled on a book before leaving school, so I went ahead and read a short book that didn't take us more than two meetings to read, "Sadoku and the Thousand Paper Cranes."  It's a book about this great athlete who loves running and lives just outside Hiroshima, Japan in post-WWII.  She gets ill with leukemia from the radiation and goes into the hospital.  Her best friend reminds her of an old legend that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you will be granted whatever wish you want.  So, Sadoku starts folding.  She folds and folds, until she gets too sick to fold anymore.  Then her family and friends start helping out.  (If you want to read the book for yourself, stop reading NOW).  In the end, Sadoku dies never having finished the paper cranes, so her classmates finish the remaining number for her, and all the cranes are put in her casket with her.  Sad story, right?  Okay, I was about 6 months pregnant when I read this and at the back of the book, it gives the real-life story of this girl.  I never made it to the end.  I had to have a student come and finish it for me because I was weeping...  crying wouldn't do it justice.  It was hideous and awkward and my poor boys in the room just kept looking around at anything besides me.  That was really my only 'hormonal pregnant' moment throughout all 9 months (until Em was born and I was a puddle again).  

Well, I tell you that story to tell you this one.  Em and I are both on that "this is the last day of it getting worse and tomorrow it will get better" part of our colds.  I was up half the night hacking up a lung, and thanks to the glories of modern medicine, I know what I'm missing out on by not being able to take the cold and flu stuff.  So, I'm on the couch, Em is lounging on the dog and we decided to watch a South African movie my father-in-law sent from the States (I know, crazy).  There's nothing on TV in the morning and I can't handle one more day of Sesame Street in some obscure African language.  Needless to say, we put in the movie.  It's a "Facing the Giants" type of Christian movie and I was perfectly fine until the end credits when they showed the actual pictures of the actual people who had lived this life.  I should have known better.  I'm about 6 months and I'm sleep deprived again.  Same thing as the book.  Once I found out it was a true story, I was done for.  Em just stood there on the side of the couch looking at me weeping and took the pacifier out of her mouth and tried to shove it into mine.  She is so sweet (I couldn't breath with the thing in, but sweet) and she just kept 'patting' (more like 12 month old whacking, but she'll get it someday) my belly.  

Everyone keeps telling me this baby is a boy because the pregnancies are so different... but I'm beginning to wonder just how different they really are.