Today was the fourth and final day of Inly’s spring book fair. As always, there was lots of entertainment if you listened closely. Where else would you get to hear a conversation like this:

Two seven-year-old girls. One girl says to her friend: “Don’t show me anything that isn’t pink!”  I hope she’s willing to look beyond her rose-colored view later, but for now, her parameters help narrow her choices!  Her options were Pinkalicious (the picture book) or Pinkalicious (the early chapter books) or Sleeping Cinderella (which is actually pretty funny), or The Magic Kitten.  Not sure where she landed.

Moments like this one are the best part. A colleague e-mailed to tell me that she was with some preschool kids when she noticed a group that was unusually quiet. Here’s what was going on:

Clearly, they had visited the book fair.

One of our most passionate young readers observed that she has decided to trust all books with fish on the cover. The last three books she’s read are: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan, Fish In a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, and Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. All excellent books. She has a point.

An 8th grade student came in and, as we talked about the book fair, it occurred to me for the 3,379th time, the power of books and reading to change lives. This student’s eyes lit up when she talked about The Selection series by Kiera Cass. We talked about Jennifer E. Smith’s smart and engrossing romance novels. And then she picked up The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies, and she said it was that book that made her realize how important books are to her.

The book fair’s top 10 sellers?  Here they are:

Poisonous Animals by Emily Bone

Minecraft Construction Handbook

Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen

Who Is George Lucas? by Pam Pollack and Meg Belviso

Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (One student said she was jealous of everyone who hasn’t read it yet because it will be new for them in a way it can never again be for her.)

The Lost Treasure of Tuckernuck by Emily Fairlie (I bought this one!  Based on good reviews and a friend’s recommendation, it’s on Inly’s summer reading list, but I started reading during a few quiet moments during the week and now I’m hooked!)

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

On a completely different note, I was in Kohl’s last night and happy to see that their spring Kohl’s Cares campaign features books by Philip Stead and Erin Stead….