Chapter 23
Bea arrived at Blossom Heath Primary School just after lunch the next day, ready to welcome the children into Bea’s Book Wagon for the first time.
She reversed into the car park with ease – she really was getting the hang of manoeuvring the horsebox now – and Rose was waiting to greet her at reception.
‘Bea, hi! Thanks so much for coming,’ said Rose, giving her a hug.
‘Thanks for asking me. I’ve been looking forward to it,’ Bea replied, glancing at the displays of art on the walls with interest. It had been a long time since she’d set foot in a school, and it was a somewhat odd experience.
She was subconsciously waiting for a booming voice to yell, ‘Beatrice Miller, stop doing that and come here!’ A phrase she’d heard frequently while at secondary school. ‘So, how shall we do this?’ she asked.
‘You’ll be meeting the Key Stage One children today.
Each teacher will bring their class out to have a look inside, see which books they fancy reading, and then, when their parents pick them up, they can buy them if they want to, or we can order them for our school library, if that’s okay?
The head has been able to squeeze some budget out of the school governors, and she’s put me in charge of spending it. ’
‘I’ve got my card machine at the ready,’ Bea laughed, tapping her handbag. ‘Remind me what age Key Stage One is?’
‘Ages five to seven.’
‘Perfect,’ said Bea, ‘I ordered a bunch of new books for that age group from the wholesaler I use, so hopefully there’ll be plenty to go around.’
‘Brilliant, and if we’ve got the time, there’s a couple of our kids that I think might benefit from spending a bit longer in the bookshop with you, if that’s okay? They’re on our reluctant readers programme, so they read each week to the school dog—’
‘Sorry? You have a school dog?’ asked Bea, surprised.
‘Oh, yeah, Bertie. He belongs to our headteacher.’
‘And he listens to the kids read?’
‘Yeah, I know! It sounds silly, but it really works. There’s no judgement from him; he doesn’t care if the kids stumble over words or make mistakes, he just sits and listens.’
‘Aw, I love that,’ said Bea, smiling.
‘The children adore him, and weirdly he seems to enjoy it too – his tail never stops wagging.’
‘I bet! I’d have loved to have had a dog to read to when I was at school.’
‘Me too, to be honest,’ said Rose, nodding. ‘He’s starting to slow down a bit now he’s older, but he saw Grace last week and she gave him a clean bill of health.’
‘That’s reassuring. I can’t wait to meet him! So, I’ll just get set up and wait for you to come out, shall I?’
‘Yep. I’ll bring my class first, just give me five minutes. I need you to sign in, if that’s okay? I know we’ve had your DBS check through, so we’re good to go on that front.’
‘Perfect. See you in a bit,’ said Bea.
As Bea returned to the wagon, she could see some curious little faces peering out of the classroom windows nearest to the car park.
Some children were waving at her, so she waved back, smiling.
She arranged all the deckchairs and bean bags under the awning, and double-checked that all the children’s books were displayed on the lowest shelves, ready for the pupils to start exploring.
She’d brought a mix of titles to appeal to readers of all ages, so hopefully every child would find something they liked.
She’d even ordered some book-character cuddly toys to help bring the stories to life, like the Gruffalo, the alien from Aliens Love Underpants, Peter Rabbit and Paddington.
As Bea switched on the fairy lights and plumped up the cushions, she could hear chattering voices approaching from across
the playground.
‘Hummingbird Class, can we all say hello to Miss Miller?’ said Rose.
‘Hello, Miss Miller,’ the children parroted back.
‘Is your name, Bea?’ one of the taller boys asked, pointing at the writing on the side of the wagon. ‘It says Bea’s Book Wagon. See?’
‘Excellent detective skills, Ethan,’ said Rose, leaning in towards Bea. ‘You don’t mind if they call you Bea, do you?’ she whispered.
‘No, it’s fine,’ said Bea, smiling.
‘So, Bea is going to tell us about how she turned a horsebox into her beautiful book wagon,’ Rose explained.
‘What? Horses used to live in there? In the shop?’ a doubtful-looking Ethan asked.
‘Well, yes, they did, Ethan,’ replied Bea. ‘This absolutely used to be a horsebox before I turned it into a bookshop.’
‘No way!’ chorused the children in hushed whispers.
‘Yes way!’ said Bea, chuckling at their shocked faces. ‘I bought it from Millcroft Stables, and my friends and I pretty much rebuilt it from the floor up. We put in new walls, a new ceiling, and all these shelves are handmade by Nathan who makes the cheese.’
‘Wow!’ said Ethan, amazed, ‘that’s so cool!’
‘I think so too,’ Bea agreed.
‘We’re all going to get the chance to go inside in small groups, as there’s not enough room for all of us at once. Milton, Stacey, Percy, Hannah, Ethan and Sky – you six can go first, Rose explained.
Bea smiled as Ethan punched the air in delight.
‘And the rest of us will wait outside quietly until you’ve finished, okay everyone?’ said Rose in a no-nonsense tone.
‘Yes, Miss,’ the class chorused.
‘Come on, you lot,’ said Bea, to the six children who were lined up at the steps. ‘Let’s go!’
‘Wow, this place is really cool,’ said Ethan, as he ran his hands over the spines of Bea’s Harry Potter collection.
‘Look at these bookmarks,’ said Stacey, ‘they’re from Dork Diaries! I love those books!’
‘How much are these?’ asked a little boy she thought might be Milton, picking up a pack of stickers on her makeshift desk.
‘Oooh, stickers,’ said Sky, ‘cool.’
‘Actually, these are for you,’ said Bea, opening up one of the packs she’d ordered in especially for the school visit. They read ‘I’ve visited Bea’s Book Wagon’ in a variety of colours.
‘Yesss!’ said Ethan, ‘Can we choose?’ he asked, tugging Bea’s sleeve.
‘Go for it,’ said Bea, with a nod, as the children huddled around the pack, pulling out a round sticker each and placing them on their shirts.
In no time at all, all six children had selected a book to be put aside, ready for when their parents would collect them from school, and the next three groups were equally as chuffed with their stickers.
‘Well, hello there,’ said Bea, bending down to fuss Bertie as he walked up the steps with the last group of children.
Bea looked up to see a scruffy-looking boy walking across the playground towards her.
His shirt was untucked, his hands stuffed into his pockets, and he was kicking a pebble, scuffing his shoes with every attempt.
‘I’ve been told I have to find a book,’ he said, his head bowed. He couldn’t have looked less enthusiastic if he’d tried. Bea wondered if he might be one of the reluctant readers Rose had mentioned.
‘Why don’t you come in and we’ll see if we can find a book you like the look of?’
‘I don’t like books,’ said the boy, confirming Bea’s suspicion.
‘Well, shall we have a look anyway?’ she tried.
‘Wow, it’s epic in here, Miss,’ he said, his eyes wide as he looked around. ‘These lights are sick,’ he said, pointing to the fairy lights Nathan had installed.
‘Glad you like them,’ said Bea, smiling. ‘My friend Nate put them in. They’re powered by a car battery,’ she continued, ‘because there’s no electricity in the wagon.’
‘No way! That’s awesome,’ the boy said.
‘He made all the bookcases too.’
‘He built all of this?’ said the boy, reaching out to touch one of the shelves. ‘I wish I could do woodwork. Mrs Connolly says I have to wait until I go to secondary school, and that’s ages away.’
‘How old are you now?’
‘Nine,’ he said, puffing out his chest.
‘Wow, nine. Well, you’ll go to secondary school at eleven, so not too long to wait.’
‘It’s two years, Miss,’ he replied, incredulous. ‘That’s forever.’
‘It might seem like that now, but it’ll fly by.’
‘It will not,’ said the boy, kneeling down to fuss Bertie, who had settled himself in the corner and was happily snoring away.
‘Is that Bertie snoring?’ Bea asked.
‘Yeah, he does it all the time, Miss,’ the boy giggled. ‘Mrs Connolly said it’s because he’s old and needs more sleep.’
‘Why don’t we let him get some rest, then, and I’ll help you choose a book? What’s your name by the way?’ Bea asked, hoping he might be named after a character from a book she could recommend.
‘I’m Billy, and I told you, I don’t like reading,’ said Billy, the confidence in his voice vanishing. ‘It’s boring.’
‘Okay, so if you don’t like reading, what do you like doing?’ Bea asked.
‘Well, I like horses and football, Miss. I’m in the school team. We’re playing Rye Primary next week and I bet we’ll thrash them,’ he said, excitedly.
‘Hmmm… horses and football. Have you heard of an author called Michael Morpurgo, Billy?’
‘No, who’s he?’
‘He wrote a book I think you might actually like. It’s called Billy the Kid, and it’s about a football player called Billy who played for Chelsea.
He also wrote a very famous book called War Horse, about a horse called Joey.
It even got made into a film. I think you might like both of them.
Here you go,’ she said, scanning the shelves and finding a second-hand copy of War Horse.
‘I like the cover,’ said Billy, gazing at the black and white image of Joey’s face above a line of soldiers. ‘Can I take it home?’
‘Yes! Of course.’
‘Cool, thanks, Miss!’
As Billy jogged back across the playground to class, his book tucked safely under his arm, Bea couldn’t help feeling a warm sense of pride. She hoped Billy would enjoy War Horse, even though it was very sad, and that it might change his mind that all books were boring.
By the time the school bell rang, signalling the end of the school day, Bea was exhausted.
She didn’t know how Rose managed it; answering questions from chatty children for just one afternoon had wiped her out.
The busiest part of the day was, however, just about to start, if the queue of parents forming at the door was any indication.
Bea just hoped they were all actually here to buy books, as she’d ended up giving away many more to other reluctant readers than she’d planned to.
She spotted Mrs Connolly bustling through the crowd, Rose at her side.
‘Lovely to meet you, Beatrice,’ said the headteacher, shaking her hand. ‘Thank you so much for coming to see us today. Rose tells me the children have loved it.’
‘They really have,’ Rose agreed.
‘Now, it turns out your visit has been more popular with the parents than anticipated, as you can see,’ Mrs Connolly said, pointing towards the queue, which was now snaking around the playground.
‘So, Rose and I are going to be on the door, managing numbers – think of us as your bouncers if you will,’ Mrs Connolly chuckled.
‘No more than eight people in at any one time, if that works for you?’
‘Perfect, thank you,’ said Bea, gratefully.
‘We’ll try and get everyone through the door, but I was hoping that you might come back tomorrow? If you’re free, that is?’ Mrs Connolly added quickly, ‘just in case.’
‘Wow, yes, of course. I’d love to!’ said Bea, her face splitting into a grin. She hadn’t expected to be asked back so soon.
‘Excellent! Rose, if you can feed that information down the line, for anyone who can’t wait this afternoon?’ Mrs Connolly instructed.
‘On it,’ said Rose, making her way across the playground to the back of the queue.
‘And I think we could make this a regular visit, Bea, given the level of interest, don’t you agree?’
Did she agree? Erm… yes!
‘That would be amazing, Mrs Connolly, thank you!’
‘I’ll talk to some of the other local headteachers, I’m sure they’d want you to visit their schools too. Cherrydown and Appleton, for example. They only have tiny school libraries as well.’
‘I’d really appreciate that, Mrs Connolly,’ said Bea, her voice full of gratitude.
‘Excellent! Right then,’ Mrs Connolly said, smoothing down her dress. ‘Let’s get the first customers in, shall we?’