Books Too Good to Miss

As most librarians do, I host a teacher coffee morning with books every now and then. In getting ready for the morning, I spend some time writing sticky notes on the covers about how I would use the book with students or why I thought the book was so great. As I was setting up for one last school year, a parent walked by and said how much something like that would help her with her book choices.

Such a smart mama. Because of her, "Books Too Good to Miss" was born.



Our literacy coach, Tammy, and I wanted to keep the morning simple and casual--give parents time to look at quality titles and take some home with them. We chose four major areas and set up tables filled with titles related to those themes:

Reluctant Readers, Non Fiction, Early Literacy and Family Readalouds.

The morning was a smashing success! Over 65 parents showed up, and after a short introduction of reading aloud the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds (parents love to be read to as well!) and an overview of the themes, most of the 90 minutes were spent browsing books and talking, talking, talking. My big aha of the morning--parents are hungry not only for good books, but also for time to talk to librarians. Time to talk about their child who only reads Junie B. Jones or to deeper understand the importance of reading in their home language.

Two more "Books too Good to Miss" are scheduled for this school year. Hoping that is enough!