My Daughter's First Lost Library Book

My seven-year-old lost her first library book this spring. She was devastated. It was a book about owls, and she'd loved it, and now it was gone.

We searched everywhere. Under the beds, in the car, in the laundry. She cried. She made a "MISSING" poster with a drawing of the book and taped it to our front window.

Then she decided she'd tell the librarian herself. She marched up to the desk, holding my hand, and confessed. "I lost the owl book," she said, very seriously. "I'm very sorry. I will pay for it with my allowance."

The librarian, a kind older man, said that was the most honest thing he'd heard all week. He let her pay one dollar from her piggy bank and gave her a sticker that said "Responsible Reader."

The book turned up two weeks later inside her pillowcase. She returned it with a thank-you card for the librarian.