#13

13 is the third of 4 blond, bright girls. One day she will be lobbying congress for some environmental cause. That is if she can ever not be incessantly reading. It sounds completely backwards, but she got in trouble a couple of times for reading! She always had her nose in a book. She had some good friends in class but many times during snack or indoor recess she was trying to get through one series or another. At the end of the year, I was tallying up pages from our "read-a-thon" to see who got a prize or a medal at Prize Day and 13 was not even up to the first prize level. So a few girls sat with her during any free time for at least a day and tried to tally up all the pages from the piles and piles of books that 13 pulled out of the book shelf that she had read during the entire school year. Usually, I won't let kids enter them much later than when they finished a book, but it was crazy that 13 wouldn't be recognized for reading on Prize Day, and the rest of the kids knew it too. It turned out that out of all the books from my shelves that she had read the total was over 7,000 pages. Which did not include books she had read at home.

13 brought such a calm, patient, and logical presence into room 22. She had amazing abilities in all subjects and made A's look effortless. I will miss her sweet ways and surprisingly dry, witty humor at unexpected times.

Far Away

Someone shouts in Annie's ear,
But what they're saying she can't hear.
Buzzers buzz and school bells ring,
Annie doesn't hear a thing.
Friends can jostle, tug, and pinch,
Annie doesn't move an inch.
"Oooo, here comes a big black bug!"
Annie does not even shrug.
"Fire!" "Earthquake!" "Runaway bus!"
She remains oblivious
Until, at last, with a faraway look,
Annie smiles and shuts her book.

-Carol Diggory Shields