Awesome Box is Awesome!

After a bumpy first two days, I was finally able to properly launch the Awesome Box.  I'm very pleased to say that it was enthusiastically received by the students.  In fact, many students went to the shelves to pull their old favorites and put them in the Awesome Box!

Many of the titles in the Awesome Box are not surprising.  It's chock full of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton and Captain Underpants.  The books that get checked out all the time.  But what I get really excited about are the other books that are kind of sleepers.  Titles like Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson.  I love this book but it doesn't circulate much.  I'm so glad that there is a child out there who thinks this book is awesome and now other kids will know it's awesome too!  Also, The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen by Geraldine McCaughrean.  This is a new book that has only been checked out once or twice but now I know it's awesome and I'll have to read it.

I was also surprised by how many non-fiction titles popped up in the Awesome Box.  Books about magic tricks, fossils and volcanoes.

And to top it all off, the Superintendent happened to be visiting our school this week and the principal brought him by the library.  He seemed very impressed with the Awesome Box and made sure that I would share the idea with the other library aids.  Which I will.

It's been a good week in the library.  I received some "Fuzzy-Grams" from a 5th grade class.  Fuzzy-Grams are notes you send to people to make them feel warm and fuzzy.  They are the best!  I'm going close this post and future posts with quotes from my Fuzzy-Grams. Be sure to check out the Awesome Box!

"Thank you for keeping a safe place to learn and read.  I love our school library" - 5th grade student.

Awesome Box

I intended to kick off our new Awesome Box on Monday but I had some technical issues that were finally resolved today.  So, tomorrow, I will be promoting our new Awesome Box during library time.

The Awesome Box is where students can return books that they think are really awesome, books they think everyone should read because of how awesome they are.  When these books are returned, they are scanned twice, once to check them in, and once again to add them to Marshall Lane's Awesome Box website.  Go there now to see what's recently awesome!  

The cool thing about this site is that you can click on one of the awesome books and it will take you right to the library catalog so you can find it in the library.  So awesome!

I think this will be a really fun way for kids to quickly recommend their favorite books to their peers. Of course, teachers can put books in the awesome box as well!

Something awesome is coming to the library!