As voices grow louder and louder throughout the classroom, Marie ignores them all. The nonstop chatter coming from her classmates does not interest her in any way. She has no friends to chat with at school. Instead, she silently watches as her teacher walks down the row, placing a paper on each and every student's desk. As soon as the paper is placed on her desk, Marie eagerly picks it up and examines it. Briefly scanning over it, it turns out to be a summer reading assignment. A forced assignment that required reading long chapters from books was not something that interested Marie, either. It was to be expected, though. Every year, summer papers for math and reading were given to students throughout their breaks. Although this particular assignment appears to be much longer and lengthy compared to all of the other summer readings in the past. Maybe it was because Marie would be transitioning from middle to high school, so it was trying to prepare her for all of the work she would have to do in the future. The directions are stated clearly at the top, standing out in big, bold font: Carefully select a novel of your own choosing, and write a ten-page paper on how it affected you and why others should read it. This assignment did not excite Marie. Not only did she not want to read any book on her break, but writing ten pages on top of it seemed boring. Now, Marie was definitely not much of a reader. She occasionally read some books in her free time, but these books were not school-related. The idea of the assignment being mandatory bothered her. And, of course, she did not wish to write 10 pages of words about whatever book she might choose. But this assignment is mandatory, and it has to be completed before the first day of the next school year, which would be the ninth grade for Marie. So I might as well get it over with and do it as soon as possible, Marie thinks secretly to herself. Her plan is to get all of it done soon, maybe even within the course of a week, so that she would have the rest of the summer to relax and do whatever she wanted. “Alright, class! I have just handed out a paper filled with the directions for this summer reading assignment! Make sure to have it done and ready to be turned in by the time next school year rolls around. And please, enjoy your summer!” Ms. Rochester calls out to the class, even though the volume is too loud for anyone to hear. As if it were timed perfectly, the bell rings, signaling the ending of the last day of middle school for Marie and her peers. Walking quickly out the door of the classroom, and then out the big doors of the school, Marie knows what her next destination will be: the public library. It surely will be the place to find an interesting enough book to write a paper on, meaning that she could get this assignment out of the way and have the chill, peaceful summer that she was hoping for. When she reaches the library after walking the two miles it takes to get there from the school, she heads inside and immediately feels a wave of relief. Stepping into the cold air, from the air conditioning inside, was a huge change from the hot and humid summer weather outside. It was enough to make someone sweat from just standing in one place. Focusing on her mission to find an interesting story for her boring reading assignment, Marie looks around at the headings of each section, and finally makes her way down to the teen area of the library. If anything was to catch her attention, it would be a book about someone her age. Maybe she would choose a fantasy book, about a teenage girl on an adventure. Or maybe she would go with something more puzzling, like a mystery book. Maybe it would be like the Cam Jansen series she used to read when she was younger. Maybe it would be a horror book, a thrilling story for Marie to uncover. Maybe it would be a book based on a movie. Marie walks through each aisle of books and quickly skims through the titles of each book, looking for just the right. . . “Need any help finding a book?” An old woman with gray hair asks. She flashes Marie a bright and helpful smile, which shows off her dimples. She looks so kind. “Um. . . yes, actually. I'm looking for an interesting book for my age. Do you happen to know any?” Marie asks and flashes the woman a kind smile in return. “Of course I do! There are some great books by many authors in this section right here!” She leads Marie to the previous aisle that she was in and points to a group of books. The woman starts grabbing books off the shelves and reading the summaries of the books. Suddenly, they all sound so enticing to read to Marie. She picks up more to check out. “I'm actually writing a novel myself,” the old woman tells Marie. “Really? What's it called?” “Books Are my Paradise.” Marie ends up grabbing quite a few books to read. Not only has she found the solution to her summer reading assignment and a new hobby, but also a new friend.