She entered the library near the tail end of a row of "ducks" led by their second grade teacher Ms. Trummel. Purple yarn, entangled in her long blonde hair, supported a hand made sign that announced to all she was "Caroline---Room 5." Next to her name was a roughly drawn purple dinosaur with an oversized yellow eye. Her hair became electrified as she turned and spun, caught up in the excitement of seeing so many books. After a few brief "no" instructions, she became part of the swarm heading for the Easy Reading section.
"Where are the dinosaur books?" Caroline screamed. "I want a book on real dinosaurs." Up one aisle and down the next she scurried, occasionally turning books to see their covers.
"I found dinosaurs!" she heard someone yell. Caroline ran toward the voice and saw her friend Janine pointing to a top shelf. Caroline's blue eyes wildly scanned the treasure of books through glasses with a bent nose piece. She grabbed a rolling step stool that squeaked in complaint all the way to her destination. On the stool, she was able to stretch for the books and begin her search.
She quickly refused some with a shake of her head, revealing dinosaur earrings peeking out from under her hair. Caroline shoved aside the unwanted books in frustration. She took down a few that appeared interesting and sat on the stool leafing through the pages.
"No, no, these are no good," she moaned and got up to return them to the shelf. An untied shoelace had become caught in the stool and she almost fell, pulling the stool out from its original position. Caroline straightened herself out and bent to tie her shoelace adorned with tiny pictures of dinosaurs identical to those of the plastic bracelet on her left wrist.
Janine came over to see how Caroline was doing. Caroline whined, "I can't find a book. They're all yucky and the pictures are no good. I don't see one I want. I have to look again," she said, all in one breath while kicking the stool. Janine headed back to the other side of the book shelf shaking her head as Caroline returned to her search. This time she extended herself out further. Seeing a large book entitled Dinotopia, she made a bold reach for it. Arms and legs were stretched out yanking back her sleeves and pant legs, revealing white socks with purple dinosaurs that matched the one on her white sweatshirt. Books that had been shoved aside began to cascade to the floor. First, one at a time, then all, as in one huge noisy waterfall. Caroline stood, biting her lip, amidst dinosaur books. Dinotopia was in her hand.
Ms. Trummel and the children all rushed to her. "Caroline, what are you doing? You must be more careful. Here children, let's help put the books away," said Ms. Trummel. The kids, all noisy and giggly, began picking up the books. Ms. Trummel placed them on the shelf. "Caroline, on the way back to class, you'd better stay up front with me," suggested Ms. Trummel.
Strutting out of the library with her class, Caroline proudly clutched her book to her chest. Suddenly, she stopped to inspect her shoelaces, causing a chain reaction of "ducks".
"Caroline!" a voice called out.