Book fair

This week at school our library is sponsoring a Scholastic book fair. It's a great money raiser for the library and the kids can buy great books while helping out the library. Yesterday I spent the morning volunteering at the book fair. It's amazing how indecisize 20 eight year olds can be when they have a little pocket money and tons of books to choose froms.

My main duties were to make sure that the kids were being gentle with the books and to straighten up the stacks between groups. I also got peppered with questions...

• How much is this book? The price is usually on the back cover. Can you spot it?
• Where is By My Brother's Side? I'm pretty sure it's on the first bookshelf.
• Can I buy a poster? Will your parents think that is a good choice?
• Is this money for real? No, that's just an eraser that looks like a $50 bill.

I also had way too much time to shop for my kids. I couldn't resist the boxed set of Fudge books by Judy Blume. I loved those as a kid and hope that my boys will like them too. Another book that I couldn't pass up was a collection of holiday poems illustrated with amazing bargello quilts. WOW! At least I'll enjoy that selection. On Grant's can't pass up list was a Lego Bionicle book on Rahi Beasts. That one is nearly a tongue twister to read but the boys in school seem to love them.

Grant also wanted a book on bats. I love it when he picks non-fiction books and really enjoys reading and learning about new animals and places. I found the one down side to the bat book while I was sorting out Mrs. S's classroom order... we had already ordered a copy of the book. Oh well, I just donated it on the spot to Mrs. S.

At the book fair I had also picked out a picture dictionary for the classroom and bought a copy for our house. Yesterday I showed the Grant the dictionary pointing how they'd grouped things together like 20 different kinds of fruit and had a really nice picture of each item with its name printed under it so kids could learn how to spell different words. I turned to a page showing various kitchen appliances. I pointed to the microwave and asked him what he thought it was. "Oven" was the first thing out of his mouth then he quickly saw the word beneath it and changed his answer to "moven". Not a bad guess for a pre-reader!