Best. Assignment. Ever.
My fifth grade teacher assigned our class to read The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright. This, to me, was like being offered dessert for breakfast. Um, yes please.
It’s a suspenseful mystery, and you know how that goes. Once you’re in, you’re hooked. I’ve always been the type to lose myself in a book, and maybe just a little bit more so that year.
Not the best school year ever.
Fifth grade was a little rough. I had a socially damning “smart kid” label, a bully gunning for me, and a devastating unrequited crush. (I know, I know.)
But Mrs. Smith was one of my most influential teachers and a great encourager. I’m sure it killed her the day she had to tell me to stop reading.
Let me explain.
One day during a silent work period, I had finished my classwork and was devouring the book. Mrs. Smith noticed and called me out, looking unhappy.
“Brandy, do you have anything else to read?”
“No,” I said apologetically. (That should have been “No, ma’am,” by the way, but that bit of Southern etiquette never quite sank in for me.)
In her defense
I didn’t know it then, of course, but she had critical thinking assignments planned for us that depended on not knowing the ending. By reading ahead, I risked the lesson plan for myself and potentially others, because I was well on my way to becoming a walking spoiler.
And that is why she asked me to set The Dollhouse Murders aside for the time.
So which of us was more crushed, do you think? My encouraging teacher who had to tell me not to read? Or voracious little me who had to put down the unputdownable?
Thanks for reading! Next up: on May 30th I’ll check in with a monthly update and an invitation to something really fun. Until then!
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