A Story About Library Manners Book Buddy Adventure A Story About Library Manners

Mrs. Francis, the new librarian, found the book buddies in the story corner on her first day at work at the Bowen Elementary Library.

The book buddies were for the Kindergarten students to hold during reading time.

What Mrs. Francis didn’t know was the book buddies were magic!

That day when Mrs. Francis went home and the school was empty, the book buddies began to climb out of their basket.

Mouse climbed up the window blinds to peek outside Mouse climbed up the window blinds to peek outside. He didn't even notice that he left dirty paw prints and his claws tore a hole in the blinds.

Elmer pressed all the keys on the computer and played with the mouse Elmer pressed all the keys on the computer and played with the mouse. He didn't care that the computer wouldn't work right for the next person.

Froggy, Lyle, and Pooh pushed one row of books all the way to the back of the shelves so they could go climbing. They didn't care that the students wouldn't be able to see all the books or that some might even get lost in the back.

Sylvester, Owen, and Clifford pulled books off shelves and onto the floor. They didn't care that the books were no longer in their proper homes and that students would have a hard time finding exactly what they wanted.

George and Martha fought over the crayons and left them laying all over the floor! They didn't even notice they broke some of them and left stains on the brand new carpet. It would never look as pretty as it once had.

Monkey climbed on Big Clifford Monkey climbed on Big Clifford. He was having so much fun that it didn't bother him that Clifford would never stand up as straight and tall.

After all their fun, the book buddies were tired so they curled up together among the pillows in the story corner and went to sleep.

When Mrs. Francis returned to the library the next day, she found the library was a complete wreck! She knew that nobody would want to come in and visit the library with it looking so awful. And the children would never be able to find the exact book they wanted to read with them scattered all over the place. She worked all day long cleaning up the terrible mess even though she didn't make it because she wanted the students to have a neat and pretty place to enjoy instead of a sloppy, ugly mess.

She wondered who could have come in while she was gone She wondered who could have come in while she was gone. As she finished cleaning, she put the book buddies back in their basket and went home.

The next day she came back and once again found the library a mess and the book buddies on the pillows. Again she straightened everything up. And the next day it happened again! That made 3 days in a row!

Mrs. Francis was sad and getting tired of cleaning up all the mess Mrs. Francis was sad and getting tired of cleaning up all the mess. She decided to sneak back to the library at night to see if she could figure out what was going on.

Mrs. Francis caught the book buddies red-handed Mrs. Francis caught the book buddies red-handed. She scolded them for making such a mess of the library. She explained that it wasn't fair to everyone else to mess everything up.

The book buddies felt sorry for what they had done The book buddies felt sorry for what they had done. They realized they weren't using good library manners. From then on the book buddies promised to do better.

They sat nicely in the story corner and listened while being read a story. They also learned to walk and not run or climb in the library.

They learned how to raise their hands.

They learned how to keep the books on the shelves organized - taking one book at a time off the shelf and using a shelf marker. They also learned to turn the pages carefully.

They learned how to use the computer and to sit up straight and gently press the keys.

They even learned to share and sorted the crayons back into the box where they belonged.

The book buddies were so well behaved that the students were able to actually enjoy reading to them.

The end

Photography By: Bowen Elementary Students Text and Story Idea adapted by Jennifer Francis from Jan Ross, LMS at Dixie Elementary School in Lexington, KY