A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting is one of my favorite books to read to students in November. I read it to grades Pre-K through 5th. My 4th and 5th grade students are used to me reading picture books to them. I always tell them, no one is ever too old to read a picture book.
In case you are not familiar with the story, Mr. Moose is on a quest to find a Turkey for Mrs. Moose's Thanksgiving Table. He enlists the help of Mr. Goat and Mr. Sheep and Mr. Rabbit and so on. They finally find Mr. Turkey, but he is reluctant to join them at the table. Can you blame him? Rest assured, Mr. Turkey is able to say "Happy Thanksgiving" at the end of the meal.
Sometimes the things we are afraid of, turn out to be not so scary, after all is said and done. The things we think will affect us dramatically turn out to be not quite so different than what we were hoping would happen. Most importantly the people who we think are our friends, are probably always going to be our friends, no matter what.
I love this time of year. Fall. Pumpkin and Caramel scents waft through in the air. Families are gathering together to enjoy food and fellowship with one another before the crazy holiday frenzy begins. This will truly be a year to reflect about what is important. Sometimes conversations can become a little heated. Common sense, humility and empathy should ultimately always prevail. Our differences are much smaller than our similarities and they always will be.
Mrs. Moose insisted that Mr. Moose find a turkey for their table. Even though they have never had a turkey before, she thought it was necessary for the table to be complete. So, just as in the delightful book I described above, drag up whatever style of chair you can find and take a seat at the table. Partake of the meal in fellowship with your good friends. Celebrate your differences. Dig in and enjoy!
I'm always amazed at the success of our small school book fair. Our parents and students are always excited at the prospect of shiny new books and those cool, fun erasers. I have to admit... I get pulled into the new eraser binge as well. The most popular non-book item varies from year to year. The first year I was at the helm, the chocolate calculator was a fast sell out. The past two years, however, the secret agent pen has been most popular. I didn't count how many Scholastic sent, but I'm guessing around 40 and all but five are gone.
The most popular book this year was the 2016 Gamer's Almanac. The newest Diary of a Wimpy kid was released on Tuesday and Scholastic sent me a huge box of those, as well. I couldn't sell all 56, but eight flew out the door.
On Friday, I packed up everything and closed the big metal cases. They have all been pushed to the side, waiting for pick up on Wednesday. By the end of the fair, kids were beginning to ask about the Spring fair. Yes, it is a buy one, get one! I hope Scholastic continues to offer this. I think it is a great compliment and respectful gesture to all those parents who support the full price fair in the Fall.
Although it was a very hectic week in the library with regular checkouts, tutoring and book fair madness, I'll miss the smells and sights of the shiny new books. One of the best parts is all the scholastic dollars I'll get to spend on several of those Shiny. New. Books.
Goodbye...book fair, until next Spring!
