Get a clue-

Turtle and I were at the public library the other night killing time while waiting on Crash's Scout Meeting to end. Now mind you the library is one of my absolute favorite places to be and thankfully Turtle feels the same. Though this night I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

For those who don't know him Turtle for all of his silliness is a very intelligent child. He thinks on a totally different plane than most people I know. I tend to refer to it as the ADHD brain. He also picks topics you don't expect out of an 8 year old to learn about i.e. the Holocaust, DNA, Iwo Jima, and now Kim Jung-il. Once he gets on a topic watch out! Not to mention for 8 years old he reads at an almost 10th grade level.

Anyways, he wanted books on Kim Jung-il so we went to the adult resource desk together and he asked for what he wanted. The man behind the counter gave me a quizzical look and I explained that it was fine and he was interested in the dictator. He looks it up for us and tells Matthew that the shorter books are already checked out and all that's left are some that are 200-400 pages. Turtle's response: "That's okay. I read at a 9.5 grade level."

While taking us to where the books were on the shelf he continued to talk Turtle out of them. So much so that when he left us at the shelf Turtle declined them b/c the librarian said they were too big.

I have never wanted to complain about a librarian until then. Who is he to decide whether a book is too much for a child when the parent is standing right there okaying the book and explaining what the child enjoys reading?? I could almost understand if he was unaccompanied or if he didn't vocalize his needs and reasons already but damn talk about judging a book by its cover.

I've already set the book up for transfer to our normal library so Turtle's thirst for knowledge on Kim Jung-il will be satisfied. Though I have to wonder after he's had his fill what his next subject will be? And I wonder when he'll want to start his version of the election coverage...You don't even want to know how vocal he was with his opinions at the polls during our last governor's election. All I'll say is that he has some strong opinions and not every adult in the room thought he was amusing.