Understanding Through Books

• Katie Koch, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2015

A young boy sat isolated from the world in his room his attention fixated on the book in his hands. He lived very close to the city in a very contemporary home. He went to the most expensive school in the city and had the latest toys, though he did not ask for them and nor did he play with them. This boy was 9 years old and had little interaction with other people at school or at home. Instead the
boy found comfort in books. The way they include you in a world or situation different from his own helped him understand the world or situation he was in. He loved the way the authors plan out their books with such an increasing excitement until a perfect and summarising conclusion. He of course did not read what other 9 year old boys would read, he read books that were intelligent and books that taught him valuable lessons about life but were simple enough for him to understand. He had met other children before but they had seemed completely uninterested in the things he liked and they obviously didn't want to peruse the friendship.
When he was 13 years old a new girl moved to his school, he having only just started noticing girls, saw that she was very beautiful and, though he had not spoken to her, seemed extremely intelligent. This girl, like him, did not seem to have any friends and he had always seen her with a book in her hand. He had a mounting desire to speak to her yet he never spoke to anyone let alone girls and was unsure if he knew how to.
One day, at school, he caught a glimpse of he leaving her classroom and, having remembered a book he had read about courage, made a decision to talk to her. He headed straight towards her, feeling completely shocked at his own decision. As he was within two metres of her she put down her book and look up at him. He spoke to her and she, as he had predicted, seemed to be very intelligent. They had a very brief conversation about school then she unexpectedly asked him to sit with her at lunch. They talked for almost the whole lunch break and he felt he had spoken more then than in his entire life. He learnt that she, like him, loved reading books and had a great personality.
He found that it became a regular thing that they sat together at lunch times and he of course enjoyed very minute of it. They then started hanging out on the weekends at each other's houses and she defiantly loved reading, judging by the overflowing shelves and boxes. He had then explained to her about the way he felt when he read and she completely agreed that she felt the same. For the first time in his life he felt he had a friend.