PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — “I wish I was an animal that lives in the ocean that can talk."
These are the ponderings of Miles King as he sits in a lawn chair on the driveway of his Plainfield Township home, picking up rocks from the gravel and throwing them. It may sound like gibberish, but Miles is wise beyond his six years.
For example, he knows when he loves something, he should set it free.
“Animal newspapers for free!" he shouts from his chair.
Gifted a binder full of animal information packets from his elementary school librarian last school year, he read through them all. Then he had a better idea.
He created a homemade stand to give them away to his community.
Why would a 6-year-old give away items he treasured? He shrugged and said, “So people can learn more about animals."
Now, he's spent his summer running a one-stop shop for all your animal information needs.
"Here's the fish," Miles said, pointing to a pile on his stand, "Endangered animals and insects and mammals and birds."
Well, almost all animals.
"They can take their favorite animal or my favorite animal, but not the tiger," he explained, "'Cause I like tigers."
“It’s just a stand that he created out of wood in our backyard," laughed Miles's mom. “We built it together with power tools, which was very exciting for a 6-year-old."
"My mom held the screws in so I could drill the screws in," smiled Miles.
A love of learning that first took flight under the wing of teacher and mom, Krysta King.
"He is—the word I came up with first is a reader," she said.
“It's been since birth, honestly. I have a video of him reading when he probably was only three months old, just like turning the pages and just looking and blabbering at the book," said Krysta.
For Miles, the difficulty comes with blabbering to others.
"He tends to be a little bit nervous different people," she said. “We often call books his security blanket.”
For a kid who spends his summers tearing through books, Krysta says it’s a nice change of pace it’s now the street he can’t tear his eyes from.
“He literally just keeps on going," Miles says, annoyed, as the third car of the afternoon passes his stand, “And he keeps on going.”
It's all worth it for just one customer.
When a family pulled up, Miles squealed in excitement, then guided his customers to find their favorite animal in the mammal pile.
“He knows how books make him feel and making him feel safe. He wants to share that with others," said Krysta. "It's been a summer dream come true for him."
Miles waved goodbye, sighed and sat back in his chair, then smiled and said "That was my second customer of the day."
He may only have a rickety one-by-three-foot roadside stand today. But at just six years old, the journey of a thousand steps begins with one Miles.
“It just makes me super proud of him," smiled Krysta.