Ela 2 1 rollingreadingroom

The Rolling Reading Room

by Eleanor Fremont illustrated by Tracy Bishop

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Kendra went to the Grove Street School. She liked it there, and she was a champ at just about everything. She was great at arithmetic and art and sports, but Kendra was not a big reader. She didn’t know why, but reading just seemed hard.

“Everything comes so easily to you, Kendra,” said her teacher, Mr. Stone. “Reading is the only thing that doesn’t. You’re luckier than a lot of people—you’re not used to having to work at things.”

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Kendra just shrugged. She didn’t like to say it, but she was embarrassed when she got a word wrong.

“You shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes,” said Mr. Stone.

“That’s the way you learn.” < 2276bc

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The Grove Street School was in the middle of the biggest town in the county. But Kendra lived way, way out in the countryside, in a tiny village called Brewersville. There wasn’t much in Brewersville—a little park, a general store and a farm stand.

Nothing exciting ever happened in Brewersville, except that the corn in the farmers’ fields got taller. But Kendra didn’t even live on a farm.

Most days, when Kendra got home from school, she liked to shoot baskets with her big brother Nate. Nate was taller than Kendra, but she could sometimes beat him anyway.

She really loved beating Nate.

She also loved to play with Hector, her kitten. She had found him in a shoebox in the park, and had begged her parents until they let her keep him.

Hector was the funniest kitten ever. He would try so hard to get at a string that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d fall over backwards.

“Why don’t you read to me tonight, instead of me reading to you?” her father would say.

“I’m too sleepy,” Kendra replied. “You read to me.

I’ll read to you tomorrow.”

Her mother sometimes bugged her about reading.

“Why don’t you read for a while before dinner?” she’d suggest. “You know Mr. Stone said you should read a few pages every night.”

“I think I’ll do my math homework,” said Kendra. “I’ll read later.”

But somehow, tomorrow was never the day. Kendra was always too tired, or too busy doing something else. But really, it was because she didn’t feel like reading. Reading was hard.

And when she said a word wrong, she was so mad at herself that she didn’t want to keep going. It was a lot more fun to do things she was good at.

One sunny day in October, something new happened.

That was the day Nate came running up the hill.

“It’s here! It’s here!” he shouted.

“What’s here?” she asked.

“The bookmobile!” he said.

“What’s a bookmobile?” asked Kendra.

“It’s like a library on wheels,” Nate replied. “My teacher told us all about it last week.”

Kendra could not see how a library could be so exciting.

But then again, Nate was a big reader. He must have read a thousand books.

“Come on!” he urged her. She was just a little curious, so she followed him. Nate chattered about the bookmobile all the way down the hill.

At last they were there. The bookmobile was on the street next to the park in the center of town. It was really a bus, with brightly painted sides. It looked like a rolling bookshelf, with giant books lined up from front to back.

“It looks like a magic bus!” said Kendra.

Just then, the door opened and out came a woman.

“Maybe it is magical,” she said. “Welcome to the Rolling Reading Room!”

She stepped aside so Kendra and Nate could go in.

The inside of the bookmobile was more amazing than the outside. There were lots of bookshelves, way more than Kendra would ever have thought could ever fit in the bus. There were reading lamps and big posters of book covers.

“Wow!” said Kendra.

“My name is Ms. Ralph,” said the woman. “I work at the public library in town. But I also drive the bookmobile to bring books to people who have a hard time visiting the library.”

Kendra noticed a cozy reading corner. It had a soft rug and a beanbag chair. “Can I sit in that?” she asked.

“Of course!” said Ms. Ralph. “Pick a book and plop yourself down.”

Kendra felt shy. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not a big reader.”

“I’ll tell you what,” said Ms. Ralph. “Let’s read one together. Scooch over.” She picked a book off the shelf and plopped herself down, right next to Kendra.

She smelled like roses, and Kendra liked the smell.

The book was called Storm Kitten. And the kitten in the book looked a lot like Hector!

“Can you read the first sentence?” asked Ms. Ralph. “Then I’ll take a turn.” Kendra didn’t want to do it, but Ms. Ralph had asked her.

Kendra began reading. “The night was stormy, and the wind was … having,” she said.

Ms. Ralph pointed to the last word. “Take a good look,” she said.

“You can break the word up into pieces. I know you can read the first part of it.”

“I hate messing up,” said Kendra.

“I mess up all the time,” laughed Ms. Ralph. “You should see my cooking. Anyway, try that word again.”

“How… Howling!” said Kendra.

“Good for you,” said Ms. Ralph. “See that?”

But Kendra was embarrassed that she had messed up in front of a stranger.

They took turns reading the sentences, and Ms. Ralph helped with the hard words, and pretty soon they were halfway through the book.

“I need to help those folks,” said Ms. Ralph. “Do you want to take the book home and finish it?”

“I don’t know,” said Kendra. The truth was, she didn’t really want to.

“Why not just take it home,” said Ms. Ralph. “If you don’t read it, you don’t read it.”

Ms. Ralph took Kendra over to the desk. “Do you have a library card?” she asked Kendra.

“No,” said Kendra.

“No card, no problem,” said Ms. Ralph. “I can make you one right now.”

In a moment, she handed Kendra her very own shiny plastic library card. Kendra ran her finger over the letters that spelled her name. It was a pretty spiffy card. She had never had a card all her own for anything.

Of course, Nate borrowed five books.

“I’ll be back next Saturday,” said Ms. Ralph. “How about if you bring back your books then? And you can take out some more.”

“Yes!” said Nate.

“Okay,” said Kendra. She didn’t think she would even read the one she had, but it was fun having the Rolling Reading Room come, and she liked Ms. Ralph.

But Kendra surprised herself. She finished her book that same day, little by little. And then she read it over.

Sometimes she read it to her mother.

Sometimes she read it to her father.

And sometimes she read it to Hector. Hector liked it, and he didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even know when she messed up.

On Saturday, Nate was so eager to go to the bookmobile that he dragged Kendra down the hill first thing in the morning. The bookmobile wasn’t even there yet. They had brought a basketball with them, so Kendra said, “Let’s play until it gets here.”

“I want to sit under this tree and finish my book,” said Nate.

“I just have a few pages left.”

“Okay, then I’m going to shoot hoops by myself,” said Kendra.

She walked over to the basketball court in the park and started practicing some shots.

Pretty soon the bookmobile rolled in.

“Well hello, you two!” said Ms. Ralph when she opened the doors.

“I’ll be right in,” said Nate.

“I’m just finishing my book.”

“I’ll be right in, too,” said Kendra.

Ms. Ralph stood watching Kendra for a while. Kendra was practicing three-point shots. She would get into position, focus and shoot. A lot of the time she missed, but sometimes the ball went in. “Yesss!” Kendra would shout.

Ms. Ralph came over and stood closer to her. “Kendra,” she said, “I can’t help but notice something. You miss a lot of baskets, but you just keep working on it.”

“You have to practice,” said Kendra. “That’s how you get better.”

“Yup,” said Ms. Ralph.

Suddenly, Kendra understood what she was talking about.

“You don’t really seem to mind messing up when you shoot baskets,” said Ms. Ralph. “You just keep at it, and you get better.

Do you think you could think about reading that way?”

Kendra couldn’t deny that Ms. Ralph had a point.

“Maybe I could,” she said. “Maybe I could.”

In school, Mr. Stone noticed a big difference in Kendra.

“I don’t know if the Reading Fairy came to visit you or what, but you are doing great!” he said.

In the weeks after that, Kendra couldn’t help thinking about what Ms. Ralph had said about basketball. She was right— there really wasn’t any reason to think about reading differently.

She decided to try.

She visited the bookmobile every week. Whenever Ms. Ralph wasn’t busy with someone else, they would sit in the beanbag chair and take turns reading books. Every time Kendra would mess up, Ms. Ralph would say, “Mistake! Hooray! Way to get better!” and they would high-five.

Kendra didn’t even remember about feeling embarrassed. And the amazing thing was, reading wasn’t feeling so hard anymore.

Every week after that, rain or shine, Kendra and Nate ran down to the bookmobile. Kendra graduated from picture books to chapter books, and from one book a week to two.

“Kendra,” said Ms. Ralph, “maybe you’d like to read a book to Danielle. She hasn’t learned to read yet.”

One sunny day in June, there was someone new at the bookmobile. It was a little girl named Danielle, who lived on the other side of town. Danielle hid shyly behind her mother’s skirt.

Danielle nodded very hard.

“Sure,” said Kendra. She bent down to talk to Danielle.

“Do you like kittens?” she asked.

So Kendra found Storm Kitten on the shelf, and they settled down on the beanbag chair.

“Read it again,” said Danielle when they were done.

“I like how you read.”

“Kendra is a very big reader,” said Ms. Ralph.

Kendra just smiled.

Kendra is a champ at just about everything. She’s great at arithmetic and art and sports, but Kendra is not a big reader. She doesn’t know why, but reading just seems hard.

PEARSON PEARSON Then one day, the Rolling D Reading I G I TRoom A L comesD I G I T A L to town and everything S T Uchanges.

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