Free No Pirates Allowed! Said Library Lou by Rhonda Gowler Greene Page A

stack.
    Soon…
    Big Pete was reading not small words, but BIG —
    swashbucklin’
… buccaneer
… thingamajig.
    But Pete got impatient. He’d worked day and night and still not a trinket or treasure in sight!

    One day he barked at Lou,
    â€œDo what ye told! Ye said ye’d be helpin’ me find that sweet gold!”
    â€œCorrect!” answered Lou. “In a book, there’s a clue. I’ve given my help. It’s now… up to you.”
    Pete stared at those books lined up shelf…after shelf! A code? A clue?
    ARRGH ! “Me find ’em me-self!”

    Maybe, just maybe, the code be in rhyme. He loved Mother Goose. Dr. Seuss—how sublime! They tickled his fancy, but—no secret code.
    Avast! Easy readers! He snatched Frog and Toad .
    Day after day after day, he went back. And night after night, he piled high a new stack. He found books called classics, great tales of the sea. “Blimey!” cried Big Pete. “Thar’s whar the clue be!
    Treasure Island …Me like it!” But—no clue to be found.
    Stumped, Big Pete scoured each shelf, up and down.

    Gangway! The non -fiction! Thar’s whar she be! Soon, luscious loot! Fancy-free on the sea!
    Those factual books, Big Pete came to love. He read about things that he’d never heard of—stink bugs… and baseball… and surfing…and Mars… dinosaurs, mummies, electric guitars!
    Pete’s picks and his ax and his shovel got…dusty. At piratey ways, Big Pete got a might…rusty.

    Now—Pete wasn’t a pirate just dreaming of loot, but a reader he was, and a good one to boot! When one book was finished, yes, when one was done, Pete picked up another. Oh, reading was— fun !

    He read and he read and he read and he read! Then suddenly one night, Pete popped up in bed.

    The next day…
    at Seabreezy Library, things were just right. Book lovers were cozy. The sky was blue-bright when Big Pete and Igor tiptoed through the door ( shhh… ) and spied Library Lou in aisle four hundred four.
    They both gave her hugs. Each, a kiss too. “We’ve come to thank ye, Miss Library Lou! ’Cause of ye, now we know— books be the treasure!” “Shucks,” whispered Lou.
    â€œIt’s been my pleasure.”

    Now—Library Lou, with a smile, big and proud, is hanging a sign that says—

    PIRATES … ALLOWED .