Book Fair Spring 2017: Readers are Happy Campers

My daughter’s school’s Book Fair is in full swing! This Fair’s theme is camping, and there sure are a lot of happy campers milling around the bookshelves these days.

On Tuesday night, I helped out while the Book Fair was open in the evening, while the annual Grandparent Sock Hop was going on across the hall. Let me tell you, grandparents LOVE to buy books! We were swamped almost the entire time. I have never seen so many people at the Book Fair at one time. We were down to our last copy of many books by the end of the evening, and we still had 3 days to go!

Wednesday morning my daughter’s class and the another first grade came in to “book shop” and make their wish lists to take home to their parents. Excitement sparkled in the air! There’s nothing like colorful, shiny new book covers to get kids ooh-ing and aah-ing. My only quibble is that the book prices seem so high to me—very few are under $4.99, which can make buying more than a couple of books hard on some families, especially those with multiple kids in the school.

Book Fair Spring 2017Book Fair Spring 2017

Still, most of these kids will return on Friday with some money in hand, to pick up their books. And their eyes will shine and their smiles will light up the library as if Christmas had come way early this year. Nothing does my heart so much good as to see kids enthralled my their books. Getting them hooked now will hopefully lead to a lifetime of learning and enjoyment for them.

Book Fair Spring 2017I also love seeing those books flying off the shelves because the Book Fairs are our school library’s only fundraiser. Whatever we raise, that’s the book-buying budget for the year. Other schools may have a similar situation.

So go buy books at your school’s Book Fair! Your school library and your kids will be happy campers!

Book Fair Spring 2017

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The Best of The Goose’s Quill 2016

As 2016 winds to a close, I take a look back and see what Goose’s Quill posts resonated with my readers the most. I often get surprised! Here are the top 20 of the year:

  1. Productivity and Expectations
  1. A Clean-Out Vacation
  1. Summer Slump: Is it September Yet?
  1. Gans Family Reunion 2016: Blood is Thicker than Water
  1. Beta Readers: A Vital Part of the Process
  1. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
  1. The Best of the Goose’s Quill 2015
  1. Research and Citations: Save Time, Get it Right from the Start
  1. The Dread Synopsis
  1. Book Launch! But What to Read?
  1. Critique Groups: A Resource Worth Having
  1. Book Fair Magic: Casting a Reading Spell
  1. Evolution of a Speaker: From Wrecked to Relaxed
  1. A Successful, Grateful Book Launch for The Witch of Zal
  1. My First Author Panel: The Student Becomes the Teacher
  1. Learning to Excel: Spreadsheets and Writing
  1. How To Cope With Book Launch Anxiety
  1. My Biggest Takeaway: 2016 Philadelphia Writer’s Conference
  1. Musings on Grief and Comfort

And my #1 read post of 2016:

  1. The Witch of Zal Book Trailer

Thank you everyone for reading The Goose’s Quill! Have a safe and Happy New Year, and I will see you in 2017!

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Book Fair!

Library at the De La Salle College of Saint Be...

Library at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You already know that I believe libraries are magical places. The sense of awe and wonder I felt as a child has never left me, and entering any library—even one I’ve never been in before—feels like coming home.

Book fairs give me that same giddy feeling.

My daughter had her first book fair this week. Until I walked in and saw the stacks of books, I had forgotten all about book fairs. But the moment I entered the library at her school, it all came rushing back. The books—sleek, shiny, new. The covers calling out, “Pick me! Pick me!” The overwhelming desire to plop down on the floor and read forever.

Ahhhh…

I picked the books for my daughter this year—largely because she, like me, would want EVERY BOOK THERE. Next year I will let her pick her own. By then I hope to have taught her how to read the book jacket and the first page to see if she would really want it. This year, I told her to write down the books she was interested in, and we would get them out of the library to read.

Aside from the sheer magic of the book fair, all the money raised goes to support the school library. It is a major part of their budget, so when you buy a little magic, you enable the library to buy some more magic for their permanent shelves. Buy books to buy more books! It’s like a magic spell all of its own.

Libraries are magic.

Book fairs are magic.

Words are magic.

Go make some magic.

 

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