32 Books Sanders Corner Kids Are Now Reading

Usually on Mondays, I write about what my kids and I are reading. But this Monday, I thought I would share with you what Sanders Corner is reading. It's been three weeks since I was up at school volunteering because of the flu and spring break. But the kids are back in school, I am feeling better, and we are all back into a routine. At the end of the day on Friday, I stopped by the school library to talk to our librarian because a few weeks earlier, I had dropped off all the books for Mrs. Hwang's book donation that my neighborhood made in her memory. It was a group effort. My friend, Lori, sent out the email and collected all the money. I worked with the school librarian to pick out the books. The Newbery and Caldecott Awards as well as other awards had just been announced so that helped with some titles that weren't yet in our library. Once the books were ordered, it was time to figure out the book plate. I knew my neighbor, Scott, would do a great job. Lori and I worked on the wording, and then Scott did the rest. So, back to Friday afternoon. I wanted to check in with our librarian because I knew she was busy getting the books checked into the system and ready to be placed on the shelves. When I asked her about the books, she said that most of them were already checked out. She slowly introduced them to the classes because she didn't want the first class that saw them to check them all out at once and leave nothing for the other classes. So smart, I know I wouldn't have thought of that. She said that the books were a big hit. Not only were most of the books checked out, but many of them had a wait list for them! I asked if she had any left that weren't checked out. I wanted to see at least one with the book plate in it. She had a few sitting in her office that she hadn't introduced yet. This is what it looked like. 

She told me that one little girl gasped when she opened her book and saw the bookplate. When some of the teachers and staff saw the books and the bookplate she said they loved it. When she showed a class the book, The One and Only Ivan, one boy said, "Just like the one and only Mrs. Hwang!" That one got me a bit choked up when she told me that.

 So thank you to Lori for starting the email and collecting the money. Thank you to Scott for doing an awesome job on the bookplate, and thank you to all my neighbors that contributed to the donation. According to the librarian we made a difference. 

Here are the book titles, in no particular order, so keep an eye out for them. One may be in your child's backpack.

So there you have it, 32 books that Sanders Corner kids are now reading. I have read most, but not all of them myself.

 And don't forget the Sanders Corner book fair is this week. The other day, my self proclaimed "non-reader" jumped in the car, book fair paper in hand and yelled, "Mom, I'm so excited! The book fair is next week and I circled all the books I want." Ahhhh, he can call himself a non-reader all he wants, but I know better.