The Inquisitors

If you can be sure of one thing, it's this--Kids ask questions, lots of questions. (The other is that they say all kinds of things about you in carpool. Things you'd rather not be discussed.)
We talked about Earth Day for Kids Club. I, brilliant strategist that I am, thought I could give a brief intro to Earth Day and move on.

"Earth Day started on April 22nd 1970. I wasn't even born yet."
"Hey, my dad was born in 1953 and my mom was born in 1968. He is 56 and my mom is 41. How old are you?"
"How old do you think I am?"
"50 or something."

"So, Earth Day began because there was an oil spill in the ocean and it was really yucky and bad for the environment and it made people think about taking care of the earth."
"Where did it spill?" "How did it spill?" "How did they clean it up" "How much did it spill? Like a cup or something?"

My 20 second perusal of the internet did not provide me with the specifics. There's no skimming or faking it with these little inquisitors. And I thought they'd just want to read our stories and make rain sticks.

Question

A woman approached the help desk, "I had this book in college, and I loved it but I lost it. I think it had question in the title and it was a bunch of discussion topics." I was a little nervous about this one. Maybe it was my aura or the magic wand I was carrying but for some reason she thought I could help her out. Just the patron, me and my super looking over my shoulder. I was able to find it thanks to Amazon but, truthfully, I expect it had more to do with luck than skill.

I thought I had it rough until my super shared the following incident. A patron came to my super and said, "I checked out a book but I had to return it before I finished. It's the something life and it has a green cover with a woman in a pink hat." She was able to find it. Now those are some skills. There's a reason she's a super.


Later that day, I stepped into the wine store and felt confident they could help me with my lame request. "I'm looking for a red wine, not sure of the variety, and on the label is a monkey on a rocket." Score: Library 2, Liquor Store 0.