She's reading chapter books

We were supposed to meet Shawna at the library for story time today. Didn't work out. Our hostess woke up in the middle of the night with a sick toddler who didn't go back to sleep until nearly 5 AM. Which meant that when we got up this morning, she didn't. And so I didn't know where the library was and Shawna had already left home so I couldn't get directions. Blah!

So I called 411 and asked for the Eugene library. The main library information number told me that there were 3 branches, none of which opened until 10 AM ... which is when story time was supposed to start. So if I had to wait for them to open to get someone to answer and give me directions, I'd be late. We'd miss story time, but still maybe get to visit with Shawna.

As I listened to the info, though, I heard a street name I recognized. And so I drove over there and turned right, because I had a general idea of what was on that street to the left. A couple miles later I saw signs indicating that I'd made the right decision regarding direction, but the sign in the library window said that story time in that branch was on Thursdays at 11. Hmmm. So clearly this is not the right branch, and we're back to having to wait for them to open to figure out which one is right and how to get there.

So we waited and asked and made our way to downtown Eugene and to the library. When we walked in and figured out where story time was we found a sign out front saying that it was full, but the next story time started at 11. Okay. So, maybe Shawna is in there and we'll see her when she comes out, or, she's not in there and we're at the wrong place and we'll go enjoy story time at 11.

In the meantime we poked around the library. They had a program where kids under 12 could fill out a form with their name and age group (0-5 or 5-12) and how many books they'd read over the summer or how many minutes they'd read each day, and just for filling out and turning in the form they could select a book from a nicely stocked full book case and cart. We did it, and Sayer picked out a book called 'The High-Rise Private Eyes #1, The Case of the Missing Monkey' by Cynthia Rylant. It is one of the 'I Can Read' books, level 2. Forty-eight pages long, with 4 chapters.

Sayer read it while we waited for story time to start. Took her about 15 minutes.

... next time I'll have her look for level 3 books ...