Notes from the stacks

We make it a habit to ask the ages of the children who appear at our front counter, and offer to let anybody younger than five pick out a free board book or early reader on their first visit to the store. Yesterday, I was reminded why.

A woman who has been in several times before brought her daughter and her own mother to check out the store. The little girl ran back to the kids’ book section as soon as the offer was made, and I could hear her carefully working her way through the entire basket of freebies, seriously weighing her choices. Mom and Grandma kept an eye on her as they gathered their own purchases but the small one was behaving beautifully.

After a while they all came up to the counter with their finds. I checked out for the adults and then looked down to see huge shining eyes in a tiny face. Her book was clutched tightly to her chest, but she held it up for me to see.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “It has Christmas.” And her laugh was like a hundred tiny bells.

I told her she was very welcome. And then she confided her big secret. “It has Santa in there,” she said with awe.

Yup, now I remember.

- Kate