We got two boxes of books in the library this week. In the words of my
TA "it was like Christmas". New books seem to draw people in - one of my greatest joys is to watch students and teachers paw through the stacks of books. I love to eavesdrop on their conversations and try to gauge whether or not this order was a success. Due to today's response, it was. . . most of the new books were checked out as soon as they were catalogued and covered. The only book that was missing from the order was. . . you guessed it,
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw. I had one boy that was so disappointed, I finally had to pull out my order form to convince him it was
back ordered (again) and that I really had ordered it in the first place.

The greatest gem of the box was a book by
Mo Willems, my favorite ( I know I use that word A LOT) new children's author. He is not a new author, but I just discovered the joy of reading his books
out loud. One of his books
Knuffle Bunny Too: a case of mistaken identity is up for the Colorado
Children's Book Award. I have been reading through the list in the library and our elementary students will vote next week on their favorite. Because this book was such a hit, I decided to order some more of his books and we got
I Love my New Toy! It is an Elephant and
Piggie book and if I try to describe it, I will begin to gush. . . Find a copy, buy a copy, reserve a copy at your local library. You must read this book. You will not regret it. I was reading this book to myself and giggling
out loud. I don't typically giggle. I showed this book to students, parents and teachers (yes, I was gushing) and everyone I showed it to laughed
out loud. My friend,
Leslie, stopped by the library and I made her read it (
embarrassing, I know). She immediately took it and read it to the third grade class to see if they would think it was as funny as we did. . . They reported back, it was a hit. Trust me, you need this book.