Witches Don't Do Backflips

Witches Don't do Backflips by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones is a part of the series The Adeventures of the Bailey School Kids. This chapter book is about the four students Eddie, Howie, Melody, and Liza. The adventure they encounter in this story is trying to figure out if their gymnastics teacher, Miss Brewbaker is a witch. Eddie explains at the beginning of the book that he does not want to go to gymnastics class, so it seems he finds any excuse to bash the class. When he sees his gymnastics teacher has a rather large nose, a black cat, and a broom he tries to convince all his friends she is a witch as well. Basically, Eddie is convinced Miss Brewbaker is someone she is not. As a young kid, I think this mistake is commonly made. Kids get caught up in stereotypes and assumptions, and they forget to see the good in a person. This incident happened to me when I was beginning 4th grade. In the summer before 4th grade we found out who our teacher was at an ice cream social. When I found out my teacher was Mr. A all my friends scared me and told me he was the scariest teacher. We all saw him crack apples in the lunch room with one hand, and chew chalk so I was terrified to be in his class. As the year began I was scared to raise my hand in class, or even go to his desk to ask questions. I ended up being a bit confused in the class because I let the stereotypes of Mr. A get to me. That is when I made myself ask him for help on a long division problem during math time. We began talking and I found out he is a very compassionate teacher, he just has some quirky behaviors. This book along with my 4th grade teacher teaches children that there are times you will think people are someone they are not; however, it is important to get to know someone, and not to automatically judge them.