Has anyone seen my copies of...

My books disappear. Especially the ones to which fifth graders have access. I'm not calling them thieves or anything and I'm not careful about who "checks out" what, but often I look for a book I KNOW I OWN...and it's nowhere to be seen. Most recently I was trying to gather up The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry. I once owned like forty copies of The Giver but do you think I can find one on my shelf now? No. No, I can't. I also need Son. I wanted to reread the quartet this summer (yes, already dreaming of my summer stack of reading). So I'll probably have to buy them or something.

Here's what Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisperer has to say about it (we are kindred spirits, just for the record): "I have purchased every book in our class library with my own money. I am a bit free with my book loans, passing out books to former students, siblings of students, and other teachers. I can loan my books to anyone I want to. Yes, books wander off, some for years, but a lot of them wander back."

One year, a family with five children who all had me as their fifth grade teacher, came bouncing in with a box of MY books! Apologetically they said, "We almost donated these to the Boy Scouts, but then we saw your name! Sorry we kept them so long!" An entire box. Another time I received a mysterious package delivered at school with my name and the school's address on it, postmarked Seattle but otherwise anonymous. A short note inside said, "Sorry." What can you do? You can smile and be grateful that people are reading, that's what you can do. And marvel that the books wander back at all.

So if you've seen any books around your place with my name on them...please? Thank you.