The Sign Nobody Could Read
Chapter 1A Long Blue Word
Chaya had painted the word BOOKS in tall blue letters. Every letter wore a yellow border.
Below it, she had written SECOND-HAND SALE in red.
The sign lay across two desks in the classroom.
Rivky was sorting donated books into low boxes by the wall.
"It looks like a shop," Rivky said.
Chaya smiled. That was what she wanted.
The sale would raise money for new library shelves.
Mrs. Adler, whose hair was covered by a navy headscarf, had asked for a sign people could read from the far end of the school hall.
Chaya had already added stars, tiny open storys, and a border of twisting vines.
There was one empty corner left.
She painted a little bird there.
Chapter 2From Far Away
At lunchtime, the girls carried the sign into the hall.
Mrs. Adler helped them fix it to the display board with removable clips.
Rivky walked to the far end, where visitors would enter.
"Can you see the bird?" Chaya called.
"I can see blue and yellow."
"What does it say?"
Rivky took three steps nearer.
"I know what it says."
"Then read it."
Rivky paused.
From that distance, the yellow borders crowded together. The red line hid among the vines.
"The large word is hard to separate."
Chaya folded her arms. "You helped me spell it."
"That is why I know it."
Chapter 3One More Border
Chaya took the sign back inside.
She added a dark outline around the yellow borders.
Surely that would make the letters stronger.
She also painted a red arrow beside the little bird.
Rivky kept sorting. One box was nearly full of animal books, but she had left room for the last small stack.
"Would wider spaces help?" she asked.
"There is no room."
Chaya knew how long the sign had taken. Wider spaces meant smaller pictures, fewer vines, or perhaps a new sign.
She carried it to the hall again.
This time Mrs. Adler stood at the entrance.
"Where is the sale?" Chaya called.
Mrs. Adler looked at the board, then at the open classroom door.
"I can see an arrow. I cannot read the smaller line from here."
Chapter 4The Plain Test
Chaya sat on the classroom bench with the sign beside her.
It was beautiful up close. It had to work from far away.
Rivky brought a scrap of plain paper and a thick black marker.
"May I try something small?"
She wrote BOOK SALE with wide spaces. There was no bird and no border.
Chaya held the paper at the display board while Rivky went to the entrance.
"Book sale," Rivky read.
The smaller scrap was easier to read. Chaya found that hard to like.
Chaya lowered it.
"Your letters do not touch each other."
"Neither do yours," Rivky said. "But their yellow coats nearly do."
Chaya looked at the scrap again.
Chapter 5The Cut Edges
Mrs. Adler found a second large sheet. Chaya could begin again, but the blue letters had dried beautifully.
"Could we cut them out?" Chaya asked.
They tested one edge first. Chaya trimmed away the dark outline and most of the yellow border around the B.
The letter looked bare.
She nearly stopped.
Then she laid it on the new sheet with a wide space beside it. The blue shape was much clearer.
Rivky cut straight paper strips for a plain border.
Chaya trimmed the other letters and arranged them across the top.
They wrote SALE below in dark letters. Mrs. Adler checked the date and time before Chaya added them.
The bird did not fit.
Chaya put it on a scrap instead of squeezing it beside the date.
Chapter 6The Right Place for a Bird
At the hall entrance, an older girl stopped.
"Book sale tomorrow after lunch?"
Chaya nodded.
The girl asked whether there would be storybooks for her little sister.
Chaya studied the sign from the entrance. She could read every word.
Back in the classroom, she used the bird scrap as the heading on the animal-book box. Up close, its tiny eye and yellow wing showed clearly.
Rivky put the last stack in beside it.
"It can live here."
The next day, people followed the sign into the sale.
Nobody praised its vines. There were no vines left.
Someone did stop at the animal books.
"What a cheerful bird."
Chaya smiled and handed her a book.
