by Gail Donovan
“You always smile at everyone,” said Finch.
“I know,” she said, smiling. “But it doesn’t feel like enough. So, one day, I said a little prayer. I wished that I could help each of you, just a little bit. I wrote down my prayer on my stationery. And later that day, when we were working in the garden planting lettuce seeds, I planted it.”
“Let me guess,” said Finch’s mom. “Finch dug it up?”
Grammy Mary laughed her tinkling ice-cream-truck-song laugh. “He did indeed! I didn’t know what to do, so I thought I would just wait and see. And, well, I don’t mean to sound corny, but my prayer was answered in ways I never could have imagined!”
The grown-ups were strangely silent.
Mrs. Adler wasn’t saying, “If you had . . .”
Mr. White wasn’t saying, “Awesome!”
Finally, his mom asked, “Is this what you’ve been so busy doing the last few weeks? Trying to help other kids?”
Finch nodded. Yes.
“This is why you insisted I make sure the library owned every single copy of Captain Underpants?” she asked. “For Mohamed?”
Finch nodded again.
“And that’s why Mohamed began bringing Kael and Khalid to Mrs. Haywood’s drawing time?” asked Mr. White. “Because he owed you a favor?”
Another nod.
“What about Millie’s multiplication tables?” asked Mrs. Adler. “Did you have something to do with that?”
“I asked Fatouma if she would help her,” explained Finch.
“What about The Big Book of Parasites?” asked his mom. “What was that all about?”
“That was Angelika,” he said. “She figured out that Charlotte, Haley, and Graciela might need help with . . . uh, that. Noah helped, too,” he added. But he didn’t add exactly how Noah had helped—by figuring out that David was getting shaken down for lunch money. Because he still didn’t want to tell on Oscar and Oliver.
“And does this have something to do with your unusual poem recitation?” asked Mrs. Adler. “The kids all standing up for you, because you had helped everyone?”
“I guess,” said Finch. “Except I didn’t. Not really.”
“Look around you,” said Grammy Mary, sweeping her hand through the air. “I think you’ve done more than you know.”
Finch scanned the picnic area. He saw Atticus and David eating cupcakes side by side. Fatouma and Millie playing a clapping game. Mohamed and Kael and Khalid sitting in a triangle on the grass, laughing about something. Angelika and Noah and everyone else goofing off like they were kindergartners again, running around with whirligig seed pods stuck to their noses.
Maybe Grammy Mary was right. If things had gone the way he wanted, it would have been just him helping just one kid. Instead, every time he had let someone in on the secret, they had turned into a helper-kid. By the end, who was a helper and who was getting helped was all mixed up.
It wasn’t what he had planned. It was better.
Grammy Mary seemed to read his thoughts. “I think the seed I planted grew into something extraordinary,” she said.
“Well, I think it’s awesome,” said Mr. White. “And I ought to know, since I’m . . . Awesomeraptor!”
“You know about that?” cried Finch.
Grinning, Mr. White nodded. “I know a little bit,” he said. “I knew what you called me—and I knew something was going on. I just didn’t know the whole story.”
“It’s quite a story,” said his mom, giving him a hug. “Maybe it will be a book someday.”
“Mom, don’t go all librarian on me,” said Finch.
But he was imagining this picture, like a page in a book. Blue sky. Trees with green leaves. Kids running around with whirligigs on their noses, pretending to be horned dinosaurs. Kids with new friends. What would the caption to this picture be? Atticus Finch Martin, discoverer of the Finchosaurus, the largest dinosaur ever to roam the earth . . .
He didn’t know the rest. But it was going to be good.
About the Author
Gail Donovan is the author of the middle-grade novels The Waffler, What’s Bugging Bailey Blecker?, and In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog, which was named a New York Public Library Best Books for Children. She is also an author for the Rainbow Fish & Friends picture book series based on the bestselling books of Marcus Pfister. Donovan, who was born and raised in Connecticut, lives in Maine with her husband and two daughters, where, in addition to writing children’s books, she is a library assistant at the Portland Public Library.
Finchosaurus
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