odonnellbook Teaching history at Paramount High School is 4th District Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell’s day job—the one that almost every member of the Long Beach’s part-time city council needs to pay the bills. But only a few hours after wrapping up another week at the head of the class Friday afternoon, O’Donnell was back in front of a room full of children at the Dana Branch Library for the First Books segment of First Fridays in Bixby Knolls.

First Books is presented by 7th District Councilmember James Johnson, and he did his duty by reading a book about pirates—right before a couple of pirates read a book about themselves, then led everyone off on a treasure hunt.

But O’Donnell was the opening act, and he took a chair in front of a squirming audience armed only with a copy of Robert The Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner. He looked pretty confident, though, and why not? O’Donnell said that Robert The Rose Horse was one of his favorites when he was a  kid. odonnellbackabove

And what’s not to like about the tale of a horse whose allergy to roses almost ruins his life by igniting big sneezes at the very worst times—I mean, unless you just happen to be someone whose own childhood … whose own existence … was made into one big mucousy mess by allergies. Think about that person for a minute—I’ll tell ya, he’s all I ever think about—and maybe Robert The Rose Horse will be less an object of laughter and more a being deserving of your empathy.

Well, except for that last part, where down-on-his-luck Robert lets go his biggest sneeze of all at a moment when the sheer force blows away some would-be robbers.

That part’s pretty sweet.