Goes Round and Round

So the title of this book is The Wheel on the School so of course the wheels on the bus go round and round is immediately stuck in my head.  Fortunately Meindert DeJong's tale is not one of whiny babies, mean bus drivers, and spinning wheels. It is the story of one girls quest to bring storks back to her small dutch village.  I didn't know that in these villages the roofs are too steep for storks to nest so villagers would attach a wooden wagon wheel to their roofs to provide a place for the storks to nest.  Neat, right?

The first thing that struck me about this book happened on the very first page (if you love the first page that's always a good sign).  This is how DeJong describes the village, "In five of those houses lived the six school children of Shora, so that is important.  There were a few more houses but in those houses lived no children just old people.  They were, well, just old people, so they weren't too important. there were more children too, but young children, toddlers, not school children so that is not so important either."  Isn't that great!

Also, just as a side note, there were six school children five of whom are boys.  In my group at reading camp there are three boys and two girls.  I have learned that boys are crazy and I have no idea what to do with them.  I can only imagine what this teacher did with five boys and only one girl. Sorry about the gender bias but if you have spent any time in a classroom you know boys are tricky.

Luckily this teacher was pretty brilliant.  Listen to this piece of advice he gave his students, "We can't think much when we don't know much.  But we can wonder!" What a wonderful statement to make.  Children are naturally inquisitive and full of wonder.  How refreshing to see a teacher who encourages this.  In fact even though bringing back the storks was Lina's (the only girl-just saying) idea it was the teacher who executed a lot of the searching and planning.  Of course I'm not going to tell you if the storks come to the village or not-that's for you to read and discover.  I will say that this book was a joy to read-so much fun.

Also, as a final note, this book was published in the fifties before political correctness so sprinkled throughout you have delightful little statements like this, "I'll take a chance on you.  Fat kids are usually pretty honest.  They have to be, they can't run away."

Letting yourself wonder...that's kids stuff.