Robin's Reward (Bonita Creek Trilogy Book 1) by June McCrary Jacobs

weekend in May at the town’s historic park. The date coordinated with the end of the school year and didn’t interfere with graduation, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, or Father’s Day. Robin had been responsible for the entire event since its inception when she became the Head Librarian three years ago. The library would reopen for business tomorrow, so she had this last evening off before things got hectic.
    This year the fair would offer several booths with activities for children and adults alike. Each booth would be named and themed around a favorite storybook character or setting. In the ‘Little Red Hen’ booth sponsored by the local bakery, children would learn to knead bread and walk away with a warm roll fresh from the oven. The local family grocery market was sponsoring a candy booth called, ‘Willy Wonka’s Candy Factory,’ where children of all ages would be able to shop and fill a small paper sack with their choice of candies.
    The local model train club was hosting the ‘Little Engine That Could Model Train.’ Guests could view a large model train traversing through forests of pines, over steep mountains, down through valleys and across river bridges before being given a genuine wooden train whistle as a gift. The nursery and garden supply store was sponsoring ‘Mr. MacGregor’s Garden’ where children would learn about planting and growing vegetable and flower seeds while working in a small sample garden plot. Children could choose two packets of seeds to take home to plant in their own gardens.
    Town Books set up a booth filled with several shelves of brand new books for children ages six months to young adult. With the donation of two gently used books for the library’s bookstore, a donor would have the opportunity to choose a brand new book to take home. This was consistently one of the most popular booths. Bonita Creek residents loved to read, and parents and grandparents were committed to the literacy of their offspring.
    At the ‘Teddy Bear Picnic’ area hosted by the local Lions Club families could buy grilled burgers, hot dogs, cold salads, and beverages for a reasonable fee. The festive booth included picnic tables set up in the shade and lively music performed by a group of musically-talented Lions. Robin smiled as she remembered the broad repertoire of music played by the band. Show tunes, country, rockabilly, gospel, soft rock, folk, jazz, and children’s favorites were included in their play list each year.
    The band was even willing to take requests for a ten dollar cash donation to the library fund.  A large coffee can labeled, ‘You Want It, You Got It,’ sat on the corner of the makeshift stage. This was one of the greatest sources of funds at the fair each year. The ‘Teddy Bear Picnic’ was the ending point for most of the families.
    Fair attendees were encouraged to wear a costume depicting their favorite storybook character. The vast majority of the attendees arrived in homemade costumes, so there was a costume contest at the end of the evening, too. Many little ones wore rabbit costumes in honor of an all-time favorite naughty book character, Peter Rabbit. Some little girls wore Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty costumes. A few of the families dressed as groups of characters such as those from Goldilocks and the Three Bears , Little Red Riding Hood , or The Three Little Pigs . Some of the older children and teens chose characters from The Wizard of Oz and The Hobbit or adventure stories such as Robin Hood and Swiss Family Robinson.
    Robin proudly wore the same costume each year. Her all-time favorite book character was Laura Ingalls Wilder, the frontier girl from the Little House book series. In Laura’s honor, she wore a handmade pioneer-era dress, apron, sun bonnet, and lace-up boots. She thought it was fun and inspiring to see the citizens using their imaginations to bring storybook characters to life.
    The citizens and merchants of Bonita Creek were generous