Author: John Reynolds Gardiner

Sadness:
John Reynolds Gardiner has died, the LATimes reports.

Stone Fox was a book on my children's lit course reading list (which I took less than 10 years ago.) As I finished the last chapter I burst into tears. I can't remember boo-hoo-ing like that with a book since.

A teacher friend was using the book as a novel study with her third graders. They had been reading the book aloud as a class but she stopped at the last chapter and let them read it silently. The entire class was completely silent as they read towards the end of the story. Suddenly, one of the more boisterous boys in the class leaped out of his desk and charged towards the teacher’s desk. He grabbed at the Kleenex box repeating, "Tissue moment!" as he returned to his desk while dabbing at his eyes. It gave the rest of the class, especially the guys, permission to give in to the emotion of the final pages.