A couple years back, there was a student who was pretty overdue with his book. It was Hulk: The Incredible Guide – this oversized, heavy, square-shaped book that explains everything in the Hulk-verse.

Often, students will offer some explanation for the whereabouts of a long-overdue book. But Hulk: The Incredible Guide had been gone for months and this student hadn’t said a word.

So when the student came in with his class for book checkout, I was curious. It was a popular book that other kids were looking for. So I asked about it.

Student: It’s gone.

Me: What do you mean?

Student: It’s gone.

[Pause]

Student: My mom used it for traction.

Me: Traction?

Student: Yeah.

Me: What do you mean?

Student: We slid off the road into a snowbank and had to use it for traction.

Me: You put it under the wheel to get unstuck?

Student: Yeah. Traction.

Me: Did it work?

Student: Yeah.

And with that, we wiped the student’s slate clean. He needed the book way more than we did.