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Book fair! The two words guaranteed to strike fear in the heart of any school librarian. That may be a little melodramatic but book fair week is definitely a very stressful and challenging time. If you have ever run a book fair before then you know what I mean. This post will go over my 6 best book fair survival tips! There are many factors that go into just how challenging your book fair will be. How big is your school? Will you have parent volunteers? Are you going to stop book checkout during this time? A librarian at a nearby school has less students and more volunteers than she could ever use. She love the book fair and can’t wait for it to arrive. I have a large school with very few volunteers, so my assistant and I pretty much do it all. For us book fair time
March 2nd is the much-anticipated Read Across America Day! It also happens to be the birthday of Theodore Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. Now, I’ve got a little confession. I’m a total Dr. Seuss enthusiast. The crazy made-up words and wacky characters? Absolutely my jam! So, when I became a librarian, celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday became an annual thing for me and my students. Over the years, I’ve cooked up all sorts of fun. From poster contests and trivia games to roping in some awesome guest readers, I’ve done it all. Oh, I can’t forget about the spirit days. They’re a blast! I’m not keeping all these awesome ideas to myself. Nope! This blog post is a mix of my adventures and some genius suggestions from my Staying Cool in the Library Facebook group. If you’re not part of it yet, I would love for you to join me and
Why series books? Students love to read books in a series. I have found it is one of the best ways to encourage a reluctant reader to read. Why do students love series books? There are a number of reasons. Which series to buy? Book publishers know that series books are very popular and very lucrative. Take the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for example. After the first couple books became so popular it was almost guaranteed that each subsequent book would be a huge success. This is a good thing but it can make it hard as a librarian or teacher to decide which book series to invest in. So I came up with a list of some of my favorites to help make your decision easier. I came up with two different book lists. The first list is for younger elementary and includes beginning chapter books.