Happy Camper Book Fair

We just ended our spring book fair. Scholastic's spring book fair theme is Happy Camper Book Fair: S'more fun with books! Our decorations included a tree and tent inside the media center. And a waterfall, RV, and several critters on the outside. 

After my volunteers and I set up the fair, I held a teacher preview. We served hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks. We also served bear claws. Teachers browsed the new titles and created their wish lists during the preview. Our Scholastic representative came to the teacher preview and gave us five $5 certificates for door prizes.

This fair, my students and teachers are most excited about Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio in paperback and Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. We are looking forward to adding s'more books to our collection with our profits!

David Biedrzycki Author Visit

Author/illustrator David Biedrzycki visited my school on March 31! His book, Breaking News: Bear Alert, won the Georgia Children's Book Award in 2016. Bear Alert is a hilarious picture book about two bears who make their way from the forest to a city, where they coincidentally foil a couple of burglars' plans. The book is loaded with references to storybook bears, such as Winnie the Pooh and Paddington.

Before Mr. Biedrzycki's visit, I invited all of the kindergarten through second grade classes into the media center for a storytime. We reread Bear Alert and some of his other books, such as Breaking News: Bears to the Rescue, Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective, and Santa's New Jet.

Mr. Biedrezycki's presentation is one of the best I have seen from a visiting author. During his presentation, he summarized Bear Alert, pointing out several bear references in the illustrations that I had not noticed, even after reading the book dozens of times. Before the presentation, he took a picture of me acting scared and inserted the picture into the picture where the bears walk into the diner and surprise the patrons. The kids went wild when they saw my picture in the page from the book! He also showed students how he creates art in Photoshop by drawing a beetle.

The presentation was very inspiring for our students. I had at least a dozen students come to the media center in the days after the presentation to show me the writer's notebook they started or how they drew a beetle modeled after Mr. Biedrzycki's.

2017 Georgia Children's Book Award Winners

This year's Georgia Children's Picture Book Award winner is Gaston written by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Gaston was also the winning book (by a huge margin!) at my school. My students and teachers loved this sweet story about a poodle and a bulldog who were switched at birth. 

This year's Georgia Children's Book Award winner is Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar.

Although my students enjoyed Fuzzy Mud, our school winner is The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.