A Novel Gift

Winning that contest was the best thing that has happened to me, because of what it taught me about kindness.

I didn’t know what to think of fifty educational books I had won. They couldn’t fit in our groaning bookcases. When I asked the librarian at my private school, she took two out of the plethora of books. I had the tantalizing idea of selling the books and buying a video game, but my mother had a new idea that stuck with me.

“We can donate the books to one of the lower-income schools in the district.”

And so we did. When my father picked me up after school with the books in the car, I recognized the route as the shabbier part of town. I noticed the crumbling homes and the cramped Food Store with ads covering the dirty walls. My father parked at a barren building with peeling yellow paint.

“We’ve arrived!” he announced.

I almost gaped as I looked around This was nothing like my school! There were few trees, and where my school had shiny equipment, kids here played on a cracked plastic slide and a thin layer of ancient mulch. We opened the rusty gate with a creak, holding the boxes.

The receptionist greeted us when we walked inside. “Hi, what can I help you guys with?”

“We’ve come to donate these books.”

Her eyes widened. “All of these? For us?”

I nodded.

“Wow!” she grinned. “I’ll have to get Linda!”

She came back with another woman, whose face lit up.

“I’m Linda, the Director of Children’s Literacy,” she told us. “Are you really donating these books?”

“Of course!” I started to smile.

“I can’t believe it!” She shook our hands excitedly. “Thank you, guys, so much! The children are going to be so happy! Wow, these are new!”

Linda examined the books ecstatically, like she couldn’t believe they were real. Seeing someone so happy made me beam. Like the smile spreading from Linda to me, I knew that my actions could benefit people in many different ways. And that was the gift that mattered.