Boock Report

My 8-year-old finds things that he wants at the store sometimes, and he becomes like a dog with a bone. He just won't let it go.

The other day, he went to Half-price Books with my daughter, and saw a book that he just had to have. Not because it was a book, unfortunately, but because it was one of those books that comes with a toy. It was a Lego Star Wars book that came with an R2-D2 figure. That was something that he didn't have, but now he just had to have it.

He pestered us about it for days, and finally, my wife came up with a plan. There are these children's history books that we have. They are books that I grew up with. There are two sets of them. They are called the Power Tales and the Value Tales, and they tell the story of a prominent historical figure while trying to teach a value that helped this person become what they became. The subjects of the books range from Benjamin Franklin to Jackie Robinson to Louis Pasteur and more.

Some of the books are my actual childhood copies that I got from my Dad when he sold the house twenty years ago, but many others are ones we found at a garage sale at about the same time. The ones we acquired from the garage sale are in much better shape than those that put in their time being passed from child to child in my family. There are also a few books that included in that set that I didn't grow up with. The most notable of these is the book about Terry Fox.

If you're not on my wife's side of the family, you might be asking, "who the heck is Terry Fox?" Well, he's a famous Canadian who lost a leg to cancer, but refused to let it keep him down. He got a prosthetic, and then ran all the way across Canada to raise money for cancer research. My wife actually saw the guy on his journey when she was younger, and he holds a special place in her heart. Far higher than Jim Carrey, Mike Meyers, Bryan Adams, or any other famous Canadian...except Corey Hart. That guy was so dreamy!

We were talking about those books the other day, and the kids saw the Terry Fox book. My wife was upset to find that they didn't know who he was, but they didn't seem interested in remedying that fact. There was only one book that my son cared about right now, and it was one that came with an R2-D2. My wife had some inspiration.

"I'll get you that book you want," she said, as she was heading out the door for work, "if you read this book about Terry Fox and report back to me."

My son took her literally, and went right to it. When the she got home that night, this was what waited for her.

School was over, but my son didn't care, he'd done a full report on the book. My wife hadn't meant for him to write up a book report when she said report back to me, but she wasn't sad to see him put in that kind of effort. He summarized the big events of Terry Fox's life, and illustrated them as well.

Notice how intensely patriotic Terry Fox's room is in that picture. Could there be more red and white or maple leaves?

He even did a picture on the back of the imaginary friend that the book gave him. That was one of the conceits that those Power and Value Tales had. Each person had an imaginary friend that helped them along. I suppose it was to make the stories more interesting to children or something. It's a little kooky, but I still love those books.

My wife was blown away by the effort that my son put into his report, and so the next day he went back to Half-price Books where we bought him his desired Lego Star Wars book.

The moral of the story is that hard work always pays off.