My fifth-graders were discussing a story about a boy who was not going to be getting anything for his birthday because money was short that year. Jace shyly raised his hand and said that he had never received a gift. Jace’s honesty surprised us. What was even more eye-opening was the fact that this fifth-grade boy had never experienced the pleasure and surprise of receiving a present.

I wondered about the reason why he might be saying this. Did he want attention from his classmates? No, that was certainly not his style. Was he exaggerating (夸张)? Again, he was not the type. Then I remembered his story. He lived alone with his dad. His father had a hard time holding down a job.

A couple of weeks later, Jace was absent from school. This happened to be the day I was sending home the note about the classroom New Year gift exchange. Traditionally, each boy was to bring a gift for a boy in the three-dollar range and the same was true for each girl.

As we were discussing the gift exchange, a girl raised her hand and suggested that we do away with our traditional idea, and each buy a gift for Jace instead. The excitement grew as the students discussed the kinds of things they knew Jace would like. We took a quick vote (投票) and all agreed to go ahead with this wonderful idea.

With great excitement, the gifts began to come in. Students with bright eyes would excitedly tell me how they found the “perfect gift”. One student bought a complete art set, knowing that Jace loved to draw. Another student found toy aliens (外星人) for him, remembering a paper Jace had recently written about aliens. As the gifts came in, I was so proud of my thoughtful students.

After several days of absences, you can imagine our disappointment (失望) when we learned that Jace had moved away! I was sure of one thing. I couldn’t let my students or Jace down.

Jonah pressed his hand into his dad’s old baseball glove as he looked out the window of his stepfather’s car. No one could imagine how much he missed his dad. He breathed in the glove’s warm, leathery smell. The car stopped outside the baseball field.

“Hey, buddy (伙计), have fun at practice. And don’t forget about your sister’s dancing performance tonight,” said Jonah’s stepfather, Steve, as Jonah climbed out. Zoe was not my sister, and you couldn’t tell me what to do, Jonah complained in his mind. Since Mom married Steve a few months ago, Jonah had a lot of mixed-up feelings. He could hardly concentrate. Even baseball 一what he always loved — felt different lately.

After practice, Jonah and David, his best friend, sat together and waited for their ride. Jonah expressed how he wished things hadn’t changed and that he could still be with his own dad, not a stepfather. David comforted Jonah it was no big deal. “I have a stepmother and stepbrother too,” David smiled, “They’re just Mom and Dennis now. Give it a chance.” Jonah let out a breath, still unsure about the performance tonight. Still unsure about everything!

Back at the apartment, Jonah found Zoe in her costume, but something was wrong. Her arms tight across her chest, her eyes were filled with tears. Wondering what was up, Jonah asked Mom, who explained Zoe was just too nervous to go on stage.

Huh! This should have been the best thing that could have happened — the possibility of not going to the performance. But somehow it wasn’t. Zoe had practiced so hard. She’d reminded Jonah at least a thousand times where she would be onstage.

Having thought twice, Jonah went forward.

Out of a 13-year-old girl’s summer boredom, I put up a tent in our yard and intended to sleep in it. It was midnight and my dad had been asleep upstairs. A girl knocked on the front door, asking if she could use our phone to call her parents.

I watched her struggle to dial the numbers. After she dialed the wrong numbers several times, I offered to do that for her. But after I dialed the numbers several times, there was still no one answering the phone. Looking at the girl, I said, “Want to sleep in my tent?” She hesitated for a while and agreed.

I accompanied her into the darkness of the yard, entered the tent, and turned my lantern on. She told me how she got here. She and her parents had a nice dinner. After dinner, she expressed she wanted a beautiful dress in a special style, but it was too expressive for her parents. They argued fiercely(激烈地) and she left in anger. She wandered alone aimlessly(漫无目的地) until she found herself on an unfamiliar road. Her cellphone was in her parent’s bag and she seemed to have got lost. She wiped her eyes with my pillow, looked at me sadly, and then said, “Why didn’t my parents buy that dress for me?”

I knew just nodding obviously couldn’t solve the problem. “Do you think your parents love you?” I asked. Hearing my questions, she nodded and said regretfully, “My parents always meet my request as far as possible. This is my fault to ask them to buy that dress which they can’t afford.”   At the time, my phone rang. It turned out her parents’ call. Her parents sounded very worried and said they would come very soon. Then, my dad walked down the stairs.

I explained what happened and he asked the girl, “Do you want that dress?” “I owned a clothes factory. I can let our designers make that dress you want for you at a low cost,” my father said with a smile. “Just tell me what style you want and your address. I’ll post it to you after it’s finished.”

At that time, her parents came.

April Fools’ Day

Nat woke early and jumped out of bed. Today was the best day of the year for him. Nat loved to play tricks, and today was April Fools’ Day.

Some of Nat’s tricks were big hits. Last year, he short-sheeted his sister’s bed. She couldn’t understand what was going on and started to think that her legs must have grown much longer during the day. When she realized what had happened, she laughed her head off.

Some of Nat’s tricks were not so successful. Mom didn’t think finding a furry toy mouse in the fridge was humorous at all. After she calmed down a bit, she said, “That’s it! There’s a ban (禁止) on Nat tricks for two weeks.”

Nat was also the class clown. He was always making jokes in class. He liked it when he made the other kids laugh. Since it was April Fools’ Day, he felt like he had to come up with something really good to provide his classmates with some really good entertainment.

For that, Nat thought long and hard before he came up with his brilliant idea. He bought two toy frogs which were made out of green plastic and looked very realistic. Nat knew just the trick he would play on his classmates.

Nat arrived at school early. To succeed in his plan, he needed to get into the classroom before anyone else. Nat’s class had a rainforest terrarium (饲养皿). It had plants, insects, and three frogs in it. Nat’s idea was to pretend that the frogs had escaped. He knew that Ms. Lopez, his teacher, wasn’t afraid of frogs but several of his classmates, including himself, were.

Nat slipped into the classroom. Good! There was nobody here. He put one of the toy frogs on the floor, near the terrarium and the other on his friend Stacey’s desk. Nat knew that Stacey really didn’t like frogs. Also, she played a great trick on him last April Fools’ Day. To make his trick more convincing, Nat pushed the lid of the terrarium open. Then he rushed off to morning gathering.

When the students got back to class, no one noticed the toy frogs at first. Then Stacey, who finally noticed the frog, screamed and pointed at her desk. The whole class exploded. A couple of other kids shrieked while the rest were laughing and banging their desks. Nat was feeling very pleased with himself. His trick was definitely a success. He pretended that he was working and reached out for a piece of paper.

Paragraph 1: It was then that something cold and wet moved past his fingers. It was a frog—a real one!

Jim Barr stared in awe (敬畏) at the platform in the crowded school hall. The headmaster marched onto the stage, followed by the captains of the school soccer team and rugby side. Jim watched with envy as each was presented with an honor s jacket for their contribution to the school’s sporting success over the previous year. When the next presentation of honors jacket would come around, Jim knew there was little hope that he would be the receiver of one of these treasured items of clothing.

“I wish you all a happy summer holiday,” the headmaster announced. “Although most of you will be going away to sunnier parts, there are others who will be staying near their home. The local council has asked the school to undertake a project over the next six weeks to help clear up rubbish around the area and separate it for recycling. If anyone is interested, come to my office and you will be supplied with a rubbish picker, bags and heavy-duty gloves.”

Jim knew he would be at a loose end over the holiday, so he went to the office along with five classmates to pick up the equipment needed to gather up the rubbish which littered the streets around the school. When he arrived home, his mother looked at him curiously as he placed the equipment on the kitchen table.

“What is this all about?” she asked with a smile on her face. “Mum, I’m an average pupil and I’m not very good at sports,” he replied. “This waste recycling is one way I can contribute to the good name of the school.”

“Just as long as you don’t get fed up and stop half way through,” said Mum.

“I won’t give up. I have made up my mind to do it well,” Jim said confidently.

Over the next few weeks, his classmates dropped out of the project.

Hearing his name called by the headmaster, Jim nervously made his way to the platform.

School mornings were always busy. The first sentence I usually heard was, “It's time to rise!” It was Mom's loudest voice, and there was no way I could pretend not to hear it or avoid it.

By then, I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. In fact, it was a race between my sister and me. We usually seated ourselves at the same time, sometimes knocking each other out of our places. After breakfast, we all rushed out to the bus stop as we took our lunch bags that contained a sandwich, fruit, and a dessert.

Then, one day, much to my surprise, there was no dessert in my lunch! What could have happened to it? Did Mom forget to make or buy it? Oh, well, I thought. It's only one time, so it's no big deal. But, for the next few days, my lunch contained no dessert! So one day, after school, as soon as I got home, I asked, “Mom! Why haven't you been putting a dessert in my school lunch?”

Mom answered, “Why, Eugene, I have been including a dessert in your lunch. If you're not getting it, then who is?”

So then we thought of my activities, and what I did with my lunch each day. As soon as I arrived at school, I always put my lunch in the classroom closet (储物间) along with all of the other lunches. And that brought us to Carl—the bad boy of the third-grade class. The teacher didn't like him in class and would send him to the closet, where he would spend most of his time each day.

Carl lived in a foster home (寄养家庭). He was loud and somewhat of a thief. He would take just about anything that wasn't fastened (盖好), so he wasn't welcome at school. Mom and I decided that with nothing else to do Carl was probably going through the lunches and eating what he liked.

My mother and I talked about ways to solve this problem.

Another day, Carl asked me if he could come to my house and meet my mother.

Sophie's First Dance Recital

Sophie was dressed and all ready for her very first dance recital. When she started dance class last year, she didn’t know about the recital.The recital was a chance for all of the parents and grandmothers to see the dance students dance. It was at the high school every year and Sophie was going to dance on the stage in front of everyone. She did not like the thought of that. It scared her.

Yesterday she practiced her dance for the first time on the stage. There were only a few moms watching so it wasn’t too bad. But the thought of dancing in front of lots of people tonight was really frightening. 

“All ready to go?” Mom asked.

“Yes. I guess,” Sophie said.

“You don’t sound like you are ready. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I don’t feel so good. I’m kind of afraid.”

Mom sat on the edge of Sophie’s bed. “Remember yesterday when you practiced and I was right in the front row? You did just fine!”

“But today there will be so many people!”

“When you go out on the stage, you just look right where I was sitting yesterday. I will be in that same seat. You just look at me and it will be just like yesterday! Let’s go!”

Sophie thought about what her mom said all the way to the high school. Mom was always right, but Sophie wasn’t sure about this time. She still hated the thought of dancing in front of all those people.

When it was time for her to dance Sophie thought about what Mom told her.

After the dance, Sophie ran up to mom in the hall of the school. 

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books, and I thought to myself, “Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd.”

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran right up to him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping (绊倒) him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

Then he looked up, and I saw the terrible sadness in his eyes. So, I ran to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw tears in his eyes. As I handed him his glasses, I said, “Those guys are jerks. They really should get a life.” He looked at me and said, “Hey, thanks!” There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. It turned out he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had been to a private school before now. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. We stayed together all the weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

Kyle was the valedictorian (致告别辞的最优生) of our class and he had to prepare a speech for graduation. On graduation day, I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I said, “Hey, big guy, you’ll be great!” He looked at me with one of those looks, and smiled. “Thanks,” he said. He cleared his throat, and began.

He told the story of the first day we met.

I heard the sigh go through the crowd.