On Mondays, my 2nd grade daughter, Iris, has library at school. They are allowed to pick out two books and bring them home.
Our house is filled with children’s books. There are books in all of my children’s rooms. There are books in the living room, the attic crawl space I turned into a play area, our van and our basement holds seven shelves that our lined with children’s books. My best guess is that we own over 500 books for the kids.
If this wasn’t enough we also go to the public library every week, and pick out 15 more books.
I have always kept a close eye on the borrowed library books from school. They can be read and then immediately returned to the counter in the kitchen where I keep their daily school folders and papers that need to be signed.
This year I have two children in school so this pile is getting larger. I told Iris last week that now that she is in 2nd grade she is responsible for her library books from school and to keep them in her room.
This past Monday, while Iris was getting ready for school, I reminded her it was library day.
SHE COULD NOT FIND ONE OF HER LIBRARY BOOKS!
We searched frantically for 10 minutes before she had to leave but came up empty handed.
When Iris came home from school, she spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the house for it. She was still empty handed.
She shrugged her shoulders, gave up and said she had the perfect solution.
I have mentioned in a previous post, She Love Unicorns and Other Fancy Stuff that Iris has claimed the Tooth Fairy has her friend and pen pal.
Iris’s solution to her missing library book was to put it in the Tooth Fairy’s hands by writing her a note requesting her to find it.
To Tooth Fairy
From Iris
Dear Tooth Fairy,
Can you find Smile A Lot for me? Can you at least find it or return it on Monday or tomorrow? See you! Just tell me if you couldn’t find it.
I felt bad for the Tooth Fairy. She already has a huge workload of collecting millions of kids’ teeth and hauling a sack full of money around the world every night; and here my daughter now wants her to find a missing library book.
The Tooth Fairy collected her note Monday night from my daughter’s “tooth fairy pillow” and began to search relentlessly all day Tuesday and Wednesday. I heard her jingling around downstairs going through EVERY bookshelf, pulling out every book. She scoped out all of the children’s rooms. She looked under beds, couches and chairs. She crammed her tiny body in every bag, box and nook she could find. The book is nowhere. I’m afraid the Tooth Fairy may have to call the public library and see if it accidentally got returned there.
I have a feeling the Tooth Fairy is exhausted with all of this extra work placed on her these past few days.
The Tooth Fairy was nice enough to take the time and write back to Iris though!
Motherhood Is An Art 
Brilliant post! Reminds me a lot of my daughter at that age and I hate to say… she got worse as she got older. We now have lost books, glasses, spellings, homework and shoes to contend with on a daily basis. PS she is 9 now and still writes to the tooth fairy, bless.
Oh thanks!!! Now I have more to worry about!!! LOL! Oh well, I guess it keeps life interesting!! Thanks for reading!
Its more like 5000 books in our house… Lol
I was trying to be on conservative side!
We have the same problem with school and public library books. i started making them keep them in their library bags on a hook by the door because they can rarely find the books we actually own and my husband is petrified that we might have to replace a library book (the horror)! 🙂 I hope Spot can find Iris’ book before fines are incurred or the tooth fairy might have to use some of that tooth money!
I remember seeing an episode of The Middle where the youngest son couldn’t find his school library book and the librarian told him that until he returned it, he couldn’t pass to the next grade level!! I’m hoping this isn’t a common practice in all schools!!! I think the Tooth Fairy is much nicer than me! I would have gave her a serious tongue lashing for losing her library book and then expecting ME to find it!! LOL!
I love that you just used a reference to the Middle. I cringe sometimes because I think that show is a glance at my very near future! haha!
Oh, I KNOW!!! That show hits soooo close to home it’s scary!!! It’s one of my favorites!
I think you just wrote a story about my life, you just changed the names a bit. And hey, you live in Wisconsin! I’m in Minnesota, so that means we’re practically neighbors in the internet world. I’m not a Packer fan, but I love Packer fans and their crazy die hard-sit-out-in-the-freezing-cold-in-Lambeau-field-because-we’re-rugged-northerners-and-you-folks-from-Miami-are-weenies-attitude. And I do looove me some Wisconsin cheese. Anyway, hi from Minnesota, ya, you betcha.
Oh my goodness!! You are so funny!!! I’m so glad I have a fellow northern neighbor who understands me now!!! Good luck to your Vikings (though I’m sure the Packers are going to the Super Bowl!!) LOL!!! I’m so happy to find you!
We have plastic baskets from Target-a pink one for my daughter and a red one for my son, with specially decorated labels with their names on them (this was supposed to generate excitement about using them-HA HA). It has helped, but we always seem to get the rogue book that grows legs and wanders off. Recently we discovered that we had accidentally returned a school library book to the public library-and the librarian happened to catch it. I don’t know if that’s an issue at your house, but it might be worth sending the tooth fairy over to check it out. Or Spot…
haha!!! I’ll get Spot right on that!!!! We definitely need some book baskets!!!
I posted a pic of them to your Facebook wall. That is, after I figured out how to do that. 😀
Awww . . . I may have to borrow this as a plot for my next children’s book!!! I’ll ask first, of course! 🙂 I’ll bookmark your post just in case! 🙂
Okay, I am completely flabbergasted now!! I didn’t realize you were an author! I just went to your website that was linked on your “about” and was floored!!! How did I miss this???? Do you only sell your books in the large packages or can you buy them individually? I am seriously impressed and can’t believe I didn’t look at your About page before!!
You’re too sweet! 🙂 Actually, I don’t sell any of the books . . . they’re all sold through the publishers’ catalogs/websites as parts of classroom sets (but I believe some do sell individual books, too). Since I work on assignment, I don’t *usually* get to choose the topics of the books, but sometimes I do. And I’ve been itching to write a story for a children’s magazine (which is how I got started as a writer), so this might be the one! It’s now on my to-do list, so I’ll keep you posted! 🙂 Thanks again for sharing such a sweet story. I especially loved seeing your daughter’s handwritten note. I used to teach second grade, so I miss that! 🙂 Best, Katherine P.S. I’m actually posting my latest set of books tomorrow! They just arrived in the mail this week and I’m so excited to see them at last! 🙂
Well, that is quite an accomplishment!! I would love to write children’s books someday!! Please do keep me posted if you do write something! I would love to see it!
I have spent more money on lost library books then I would like to admit.
I think that you are placing undue pressure on that Tooth Fairy. If I come to find out she is spending too much time in Wisconsin, I’ll know who to blame!
LOL!!! I heard she made a trip to the public library this morning to inquire if they had received any school library books! They had not! The Tooth Fairy then wasted more precious time perusing the bookshelves for more books…..stupid fairy!
The things we’ll do for our kids. Once again, you managed to keep Iris’ imagination stirring. Great job mom!
Thanks!! She discovered her reply from the Tooth Fairy this morning and was so excited that the Tooth Fairy had a sister who’s job was to find lost stuff! I just have to sit back and laugh at what I have created!!! Thanks for reading!!
Maybe you ought to get her an electronic book reader. I’ve been notorious for losing books over the years. I still do! The only thing I would caution you is that she might be really mad at the tooth fairy someday.
I certainly hope she doesn’t get mad at the Tooth Fairy!! Thanks for reading!!!
I love this story. You and your family are just adorable! So glad I’ve met you through our blogs!
Thank you so much! This is the great thing about blogging…I’ve met the most amazing people! Thanks for reading!
If she still hasn’t found it by Christmas, she can always recruit Santa for the mission. I hear that he doesn’t have much else to do after the Christmas rush.
Love this post!
Thank you!! It still has not turned up so I’m thinking Santa may be in order!!! LOL!!!
She is learning to delegate young! 😉
LOL!!! Exactly!!
How wonderful that your children are already immersed in the world of words! One of my treasured memories is my Dad picking me up from school on a Friday and taking me to the library.
Oh, that is a great memory! My mom took me to the library almost every week and I absolutely loved it! I’m grateful I have kids that love it too!
No way! Too, too funny!
I’m always laughing in this house!!!
Really cute! I’ll have to remember this trick when my kiddos get older!
Thank you! Fun is always abound at our house!!! LOL!!
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