It will be a quiet week in the library due to the half-day schedule and the very exciting book fair!

Classes will visit the book fair this week instead of the library. Your child's class may visit the fair at a time other than his or her usual library time. This is the schedule of class visits as of 10/21/16.

The library will be up and running this week as usual, though!

If you would like your child to wait for you in the library during your parent-teacher conference, please arrange for another parent to supervise your child. Children in the library after dismissal must be supervised by a parent or guardian.

If I am not in the library sometimes this week I am likely in room 24, up near the school garden. I have some organizing to do up there.

Enjoy the book fair! It's a great fundraiser for our school, and a wonderful way to show your child how special it is to have a book of one's own. We are lucky indeed to have ready access to books in our community. They are truly treasures.

This week, CYRM nominees continue, including the chapter books for 4th grade. I will also be previewing books for next week's book fair.

Occasionally holidays or other events pre-empt class visits to the library, so I'm in the process of making sure everyone has heard all the books at their CYRM level. You will see that if you look at this week's Weekly Readalouds entry. The students will be voting on the two picture book categories around the time you are voting in the national election!

Students in grade 4 are encouraged to read the three books at the "Intermediate" (chapter-book) level of CYRM. Students who do so by the end of March can vote on that level at a pizza get-together! The library is circulating copies of those books, but they can also be requested from the public library or purchased at our upcoming...

Book fair! Next week is our school's "Monster Book Fair." Pages, our classy, smart, and beautiful local independent bookstore, is the source of the merchandise. This week I will be pitching some of Pages recommendations. Of course, there will be many other books at the fair, including all the books for which your sons and daughters are clamoring, like Pokemon guides, the Guinness World Records 2017, the Amulet series, picture books by Mac Barnett--you know the ones :-) Shopping at the book fair benefits our school. It's not too early to start shopping for the winter holidays!

Please note that the public library is largely in use for a public art installation right now, but events are still taking place in the library's meeting room. For younger children (ages 3 and up), there will be an art activity on Wednesday, October 19, at 3:30. DJ MacHale will be speaking at the library at 3:30 on October 20. He'll be promoting his spooky new middle-grade novel, The Curse of the Boggin, just in time for Halloween. Library holds can be picked up at the main entrance just like usual.

The PK library will close at 1:45 this Wednesday, October 19. I have to go to a meeting off campus of district library staff.

No videos this week, just books: the California Young Reader Medal nominees continue for all grades. 

Grade 4 has begun receiving copies of the three novels that are nominated for CYRM. If a 4th-grade student reads all three nominees in that category by the end of March, he or she will be invited to vote at a pizza get-together! The library has ten copies of each novel, and I will be passing them out to students through a lottery system. 

Our school book fair is coming up from October 24 to 28. Those days will be half-days and classes will not attend library that week, instead visiting the book fair. The library will be open that week, although I will likely be up in room 24 quite a bit, organizing the leveled book kits that are stored there.

There is going to be a public art installation at the Manhattan Beach public library that will cause the library itself to be largely closed from October 17 to 23. There are still events coming up there, though--the events will be held in the meeting room. At 3:30 on Wednesday, October 12, there will be a "STEAM" event on fiber optics for students in grades 2 to 8. For younger children (ages 3 and up), there will be an art activity on Wednesday, October 19, at 3:30. DJ MacHale will be speaking there at 3:30 on October 20. He'll be promoting his spooky new middle-grade novel, The Curse of the Boggin, just in time for Halloween. Library holds can be picked up at the main entrance.

The public library's bookmark contest has started! Entries are due by October 29. The entry form is below (beneath the videos).

DJ MacHale will be speaking at the Manhattan Beach public library on October 20. He'll be promoting his spooky new middle-grade novel, The Curse of the Boggin, just in time for Halloween.  

This week students in grade 4 who want to read the CYRM chapter-book nominees will begin to receive those from the PK library. The library will be circulating ten copies of each of the three in the coming months. Voting will be at the end of March. Copies can also be obtained from the public library and from booksellers.

This week in the library grades K, 1, and 2 will hear another of the California Young Reader Medal (CYRM) nominees, It's an Orange Aardvark, so we'll watch this short "classic Sesame Street" video that is below to go with it, as well as at least some of the film of carpenter ants in a tree stump (since that's exactly what's in the Orange Aardvark book). 

​Grades 3, 4, and 5 will hear The Kite that Bridged Two Nations, and we'll take a look at the Smithsonian video also below, since the book is about the first suspension bridge over the Niagara River.