But You Have to Read It

Third graders clustered around my rocking chair on this autumn afternoon for Lise Lunge-Larsen's version of the Norwegian folktale "Butterball" from her book The Troll With No Heart in His Body. They groaned each time the round, sweet-loving boy popped from his hiding spot saying, "Pip! Pip! Here I am!" to the troll hag who carries her head under her left arm pit. They really groaned when he got smart enough to shove the troll hag's daughter into the cooking pot. Then they wanted to know what we were going to read next week.

I choose my read-aloud selections carefully, and I had been contemplating two of them: Joanne Rocklin's One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street and Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio. One students asked when I would be reading Because of Winn-Dixie. I asked how many students had read it already and was shocked to see only three hands raise. Actually, I was not going to read it aloud this year. What? But you have to read it, she told me. It is one of my favorite books to read aloud (though I always cry several times). Children love it. I told her I would think about it. Before she left class, she came back to me and repeated, But you have to read it.