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Titles Of Note
By Lisa (Kerste) Arline ’68
Lisa (Kerste) Arline’s (’68) 5th Grade Class — 1967
When asked about some of my favorite books for an article in The Buccaneer magazine’s 60th anniversary edition issue, I wanted to mention books related to my years here at Benjamin. I thought back to my elementary school days when I attended the North Palm Beach Private School (now Benjamin), where I discovered the love of reading and the magic of books.
I am deeply grateful I had the opportunity to have Mr. Benjamin as a kindergarten teacher who taught me how to read as a young child.
His classroom (Room 1), converted from a cottage, was warm and inviting with a fireplace in the back of the room and a small reading bench in the corner. It has since been relocated from its original position next to the Lower School circle driveway, renovated, and now serves as the Head of School’s office on the Lower/ Middle School Campus overlooking the football field. Reading was the subject of utmost importance to Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin and, today, students are still learning how to read and spell using the Carden Method. Mrs. Benjamin could make a story come to life as she shared with us her love of books and enthusiasm for reading. I can remember her reading Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling aloud to our elementary class, where we, as students, were utterly entranced hanging on every word.
I can also remember reading Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in French class. It contains a quote by the fox and, to this day, it remains one of my favorites. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. The final book I would like to mention is The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff. It was a gift at the end of the year from a parent of a fifth-grade French student. It is the story of female spies during World War II, and was one I could not readily put down and thoroughly enjoyed reading over the summer.
