Destination: Online Book Fair

This year, our book fair was hugely successful thanks to the support of our teachers and parents.  Thank you to everyone who came out to our book fair this fall.  I'll post some wrap up notes from our fair.  I had fully intended to post throughout, but it got busy in here!  This year is also our first online book fair.  It continues through Monday, November 28th.  Any orders placed online will be delivered to the school after November 28th and will be delivered to classrooms at that time.  To place an online order, visit our online fair.

Blast off to the Book Fair

Our Book Fair has begun.  Our PTA Volunteer Book Fair Chairs did an AMAZING job decorating our library for our space themed book fair.  Check out the following resources to learn more about our book fair.

Pine Road Library Book Fair Homepage

Scholastic Book Fair Homepage

Skippyjon Jones Lost in Spice

Kindergarten students were treated to a favorite character as we prepared for our Spice...I mean Space themed bookfair.  Skippyjon Jones Lost in Spice is an excellent example of the power of one kitty boy's imagination.  After we bounced and pounced to Mars and beyond, we created aliens and planets and rockets to decorate our library and the halls of our school as we turn the library into Pine Road Space Station.

Hedgie Blasts Off

We do a Jan Brett author study in First Grade.  Last year, we started with The Hat, but this year, since our Book Fair is "space" themed, we read Hedgie Blasts Off.  Hedgie Blasts Off is a very fun science fiction picture book with a planet, Mikkop, with a crater (Big Sparkler) that spews sparkles into space.  Except when it doesn't.  Hedgie finds himself being the first hedgehog sent into space with a mission to fix Big Sparkler.  Find out if his mission is a success and check out Hedgie Blasts Off by Jan Brett.

The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall

I finished reading Mary Downing Hahn's "The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall" last week.  I love when I can identify the cover art's origin within the pages of a book.  It can be chilling to take a second, closer look at the cover and this book is an excellent example of that.  Mary Downing Hahn is known for her ability to tell a ghost tale for children and do so appropriately and well.  She scares your socks off without making it too difficult to sleep at night.  But her characters often have difficulty sleeping at night.  Last summer, I listened to "Wait Til Helen Comes" on audiobook in my car and had trouble getting out of the car for wanting to find out what would happen next.  Likewise, in "The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall," I didn't want to put the book down.  I liked how it was set in the past, whereas "Wait Til Helen Comes," "All the Lovely Bad Ones," and "Deep and Dark and Dangerous" (booktalks coming soon) were all set in the present with ghostly visitors from the past.  When our school merged grades four and five last year, Mary Downing Hahn was on the list of authors suggested by the middle school librarian to add to our collection, but I wasn't yet familiar with her work so I hadn't added many titles just yet.  I had "Wait Til Helen Comes" in the collection already and this past summer added "The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall."  Consequently, TGCH is also a featured book at this fall's upcoming book fair.  Our fair will begin on Thursday, November 10th.  Any shoppers who would like to shop our fair online can do so beginning on the 11th as well and running all the way until Monday, November 28th.  I'm hoping to hook students with "The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall."