Old People, Frogs, and Albert

A boy overcomes his fear of reading and of the elderly Nine-year-old Albert loves frogs, and he doesn't really have anything against old people -- he's just so uncomfortable around them, at least when they're sick. "Don't get too old," he writes to his grammy. Feisty Grammy holds her own, but elderly Mr. Spear, who helps Albert with his reading at school, is suddenly felled by a stroke and ends up in the very nursing home that Albert passes reluctantly on his way to and from school. Albert can hardly bear to visit Mr. Spear. Then, when Grammy sends him a book about frogs, Albert's reading reaches a new plateau -- as Mr. Spear had said it would -- and Albert races to the nursing home to share the news with Mr. Spear. Nancy Hope Wilson's pognant story is affectingly illustrated by Marcy D. Ramsey.