Canned and Crushed

by Bibi Belford

“Perhaps, I should just walk you back to class, Sandro,” Mr. Smalley says with a wink. “I’m on my way to let teachers know we will be going outside for recess after all, now that the rain’s stopped.”

  My class is lining up in the hall when me and my new pal, princi-pal, that is, walk up. Everybody hears the news and retreats to grab coats. Abiola gives me cuts in line. She’s holding her awesome soccer ball. We sprint out the door and across the playground to the soccer field.

  “Come on,” I yell at Rafe, who I see standing by himself near the building wall. “You can be on our team!”

  Acknowledgments

  Sandro has a village that helps to raise him. Parents who love him. Teachers, coaches, and neighbors who care. Friends who stand by him. It also takes a village to publish a book. My village includes my husband who patiently listens to my first dribbly drafts; my kids and grandkids who fill my life with love (Ashley, Ardell, Brian, Abbie, Kevin, Hazel, and Hank); my writing sisters who challenge and inspire me (Chris DeSmet, Julie Holmes, Blair Hull, Roi Solberg, Cheryl Hansen, and Lisa Kusko); the office staff at Allen School who do the many unseen jobs of making kids feel safe and welcome besides helping me with my Spanish words; Mrs. Klotz’s fifth grade class who read Canned and Crushed before it was even published; and, of course, the amazing duo of Julie Matysik, my editor, and Adrienne Szpyrka, her assistant, who will die when they see the length of this paragraph and in the sweetest of ways will help me edit it!

  About the Author

  Hi, I’m Mac. Full name: MacBook Air. Bibi and I started seeing each other when she broke if off with Sam. Samsung Netbook. We’ve had our conflicts, mainly fighting about backspacing and two-finger tracking, but I’m predicting ours will be a lasting relationship. Bibi hates to talk about herself, so she asked me to write a few words on her behalf.

  She graduated from Westmont College in California with a BA in English, then moved to Aurora, Illinois, to begin her teaching career. She’s completed Reading Recovery training, an ESL endorsement, a Reading Endorsement, and a master's in Bilingual Literacy. She’s taught first, second, and third grade, Reading Recovery, reading intervention groups, and has also been a literacy coach. As close as I can calculate, she’s taught more than one thousand kids to read.

  She’s a mother of four kids and Grandma Bibi to Hazel and Hank. She writes books she thinks her students will like because she wants to inspire them to be meaning makers and change agents. She loves the beach and sunsets over Lake Michigan but leaves me at home in my neoprene. She loves movies with characters that make positive changes, but she gets greasy popcorn butter all over my keys. She loves reading all kinds of genres almost as much as spending time with me.

  We’re done here, aren’t we? You can always contact me on her webpage for additional information. She and I have no secrets.