The week of St. Patrick's Day, I worked in the school library one morning. My usual tasks are checking books in and out, reshelving and alphabetizing, and occasionally helping kids find books. I have a fairly low profile with the kids that come in for library time. I was organizing books while the awesome school librarian was reading an Irish folk tale to a class of third graders. Mrs. English is an amazing storyteller; she uses accents, different voices and gestures, and the kids (even the ultra-cool 5th graders) love it. I was half-listening to the story when the principal came in, towing a flushed looking kindergartner behind him. He stopped in front of me, then looked over at the reading group. I said, "I have a limited skill set here. I can't really do anything." Then he explained that the kindergartner needed to film a quick spot for the school news before he went home sick. They needed Mrs. English and they needed her immediately. We went over to the reading group and stared until she noticed us. Dr. W. explained the situation. He said, "Mrs. Holbrooks can take over here." Uh, what?
The 3rd graders took a vote, and decided to continue the story. One of their number was elected to read in Mrs. English's place. He made it through half a page before he was heckled over a mispronunciation. Then he quit, and they all looked at me. Tough crowd. I told them that I would read but that I couldn't do the accent like Mrs. English could. A kid in the front row said, "I can do the accent!" "Do you want to read?" "Uh, no," he replied.
I read the rest of the Tomie De Paola book to them. It was about a really lazy Irish man who has a pooka (a sort of spirit or ghost) help him clean until his wife comes home from a trip. Or, rather, until the last day before she comes home, when he accidentally sets the spirit free and he's stuck with a huge mess. It was a good story and no one booed. When I finished, I looked up to see them all staring at me. One kid clapped. The accent artist said, "It would have been better with the accent." Like I said, tough crowd!
That same week Alex's class had a special visitor for St. Patrick's Day. Jamie, Alex's friend who has been in multi-age with him for 3 years now, is half Irish. His dad is from Ireland and when the boys were in kindergarten the kids told me that Jamie's dad might be a leprechaun. (They said he definitely sounded like one.) He volunteers in their classroom and they look forward to seeing him in March for St. Patrick's Day. Since it fell on a weekend this year, I wasn't really thinking about it when I picked Alex up on the 18th. On the way home he launched into a spirited speech with several talking points about how Ireland was the best place to live. He told me about how beautiful it was, AND how it was the safest place on the planet. (He's not kissing the blarney stone, though, because he was concerned about germs. I told him it was okay - he already has the gift of blarney.) I was a bit puzzled about where all this came from until I remembered the date. "Did Jamie's dad visit your class today?" "Yes, yes, he did, and he read us a book about Ireland called, 'About Ireland.' It was great!" I told him that I didn't think we'd move to Ireland any time soon, but that I would love to visit it. It was Alex's favorite booth at the International Festival as well, but I think that might have something to do with Jamie's mom's yummy lemon cake and Irish soda bread.
