Book Uncle and Me
Page 6
So I use my best listen-very-carefully voice. The voice that Mrs. Rao uses when she tells us something really, really important.
“Here are all these people who voted for you because they thought that you would do good. So … will you … please tell us …”
At this point, I am shocked to find that my throat gets tight. This has never happened even once in my life. My hands get sweaty. My listen-very-carefully voice has holes in it. I cannot say another word.
What do I do now? I have no other kind of voice left.
Then, just when I can see that those chickens I counted (too soon) are starting to roll away like lost marbles …
THAKKA-THAKKA-THAAM-THAAM!
A perfect drumbeat sounds from just behind me.
Thakkitta-THAAM! THAKKA-thimmi-thaaam!
And something magical happens. My voice returns and it is stronger than before, an A-One campaign-perfect, I-mean-it kind of voice. I tell Karate Samuel all about Book Uncle. How he has books for everyone. How he loves each book like a friend, and all he wants to do is share his books with the whole city, with anyone who wants to read one. He can’t afford to pay for permits. They will take time. We can’t wait for that. We need him back now.
“If you are a true leader,” I say, “then you tell me. Why do you have to have a permit in our city to do good things?” And I hold out the karate book.
Mayor Karate Samuel reaches out a hand. He takes the book from me. He opens it. He stares at it. He stares some more. He looks up and stares at me.
If there was a feather handy, I could have tried it out to see if it worked as a knockdown weapon.
Then the new mayor smiles a slow smile.
I recognize that smile. It is the smile I smile when Book Uncle finds the right book for the right day, just for me.
“A true leader …” Mayor Samuel whispers, and he turn-turn-turns the pages. “You have more like this?” he asks.
Book Uncle folds his hands and tips his head and beams at the mayor through his super-thick glasses.
“Many more,” he says.
I nod-nod-nod my head.
The mayor looks at Book Uncle. He looks at me. He straightens up. He takes a breath. We all wait — kids and grown-ups, babies and yappy dog and donkeys — all of us together.
“You, sir,” says Mayor Karate Samuel, his best hero voice ringing out, “will get your permit — FREE! It will be issued at once, express-track, I promise you. I will see to it myself.”
The crowd goes wild. We roar and cheer, clap, foot-stamp, drum, dog-yap, donkey-bray, baby-babble, sing snatches of songs from Karate Samuel’s movies, and shout, “Hiya!”
31
—
Book Uncle’s Place
IN JUST A FEW more days, an even bigger crowd shows up on the corner of St. Mary’s Road and 1st Cross Street to celebrate the now officially permitted Book Uncle’s Free Lending Library.
There are so many people that the city has to close the road to cars and buses and autorickshaws, bikes and motorbikes and scooters and anything else with wheels.
People and animals are allowed, which is good because Anil has brought his dog, Bubbles. He has also brought the students and the teacher from the karate studio where he takes lessons. They are all wearing their white uniforms with brightly colored belts. Anil’s is blue.
All this time I did not know that about him. He is a blue belt.
The istri lady’s whole family is here again, along with their three donkeys, who have to be scolded for trying to eat the flowers tucked into Mrs. Rao’s hair. A troupe of acrobats has arrived from somewhere. I have never seen them before, but their leader seems to know Book Uncle.
Mayor Karate Samuel cuts a ribbon. Musicians play. Dancers dance. Jugglers juggle. Book Uncle’s patrons wander around looking pleased. Acrobats leap over poles. Karate champions block, punch and kick. Mrs. Rao dabs at her eyes with the end of her sari.
She is not sad. She is very, very pleased that we have learned to be such fine citizens. Our school bus driver belts out his A-One favorite songs from Karate Samuel’s movies. He sings them at the top of his voice. We all sing along and clap our hands and stamp our feet in time.
And here is Book Uncle. He cannot stop smiling. He sits in a chair next to his books. They are laid out in perfect stacks. The fruit man and his wife have helped Book Uncle set up this fine new reopened lending library.
Look at the pavement — newly patched! Nice and even. No broken bricks.
And just look at the new and improved sign, relettered and sharpened up.
Books. Free.
Give one.
Take one.
Read-Read-Read.
About the Author
UMA KRISHNASWAMI is the author of more than twenty books for children, from picture books (The Girl of the Wish Garden, Bright Sky, Starry City and Out of the Way! Out of the Way!)to novels for young readers (The Grand Plan to Fix Everything). Her books have been published in eleven languages and have been picked for CCBC Choices, Parents’ Choice, IRA’s Notable Books for a Global Society, the Scientific American Young Readers’ Book Award, Bank Street Best Books of the Year and the Paterson Prize. Originally published in India, Book Uncle and Me won the Scholastic Asian Book Award and the Crossword Book Award.
Born in New Delhi, Uma teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA program in writing for children and young adults. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
umakrishnaswami.org
About the Publisher
Groundwood Books, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children’s books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.
Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.
We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.