Today I fell off the wagon…

Confession: Hello, my name is Amy, and I’m addicted to buying books.

Today I heard that the Borders near our school is going out of business. “Hmmm, Borders is right on my way home,” I thought innocently to myself, “I’ll stop and see if they have No Talking by Andrew Clements.” No Talking was going to be my next read aloud, but my copy is NO WHERE to be found!

I was on the phone with my mom as I walked into the bookstore, “Don’t worry mom, I’m just looking for one book….unless they have an amazing deal I can’t pass up. I mean how often will Borders have their going out of business sale?” Do you hear the justifying? “Amy, this is like sending an alcoholic to a liquor store!” My mom tried to reason.

In the store I headed straight to the “C’s” to find my book. They had every Andrew Clements book except No Talking…but I continued to browse. At only 20% off, I wasn’t too tempted until I saw this book…

You have to see this book in relation to a normal size book!

It’s a jumbo sized version of Bridge to Terabithia! We just finished this novel unit in reading, and it is my absolute favorite! How could I pass that up!? And, of course I had to buy one for my whole team!  (Don’t worry, VERY soon I will post my Novel Unit for Bridge to Terabithia)

Head out of Borders. Now that I’ve had a taste, I’m thirsty for more…”I’ll just swing by Half Price Books and see if they have No Talking…” I give myself a pep talk in the car. “Just walk straight to the Juvenile Fiction section, see if they have it and walk out. You can do it!” I walk in to the store and there on display is a GIGANTIC Greek mythology POP-UP book! It is like I was being tested! After turning each gloriously interactive page, I sadly set it back in the display…and began walking toward the JF section. I intended to walk straight there, but it was beyond my control, The Children’s Clearance section is on the way…

This will be a wonderful addition to my Greek basket!

This Ancient Greece book will be a great addition to my Greek Mythology basket…and all these hardcover books? Only a dollar each ($.90 with my teacher discount)! Can you tell that I’m working on my non-fiction section?

And look at this….

15 hardcover books for only $22! STEAL. And they had No Talking…SCORE! And you should see all the great books I didn’t buy! Ok, so maybe I have a bit of a problem…

ps: This genre in the Teen Fiction section of the book story caught my eye:

WHAT?! Teen Paranormal Romance  is a GENRE now? And the section was HUGE!

If buying books is wrong, I don’t want to be right :)

Half Price Books and Classroom Construction

Wow, am I tired! But I’m a good kind of “I got something done today” tired. So here are the results of my Saturday at school, I have lots of things to share from today, but I’m going to keep this to an overview and then go into more detail on a later post. Confession: After I posted yesterday about Half Price Books, I got the itch to go check out the clearance section.

I just realized I never took a picture of my spoils, shoot! I bought 36 books for $1.00/ea–what a STEAL! The clearance section was the super well stocked, sometimes I go and the shelves are mostly empty, but today they were fairly bursting! I was planning on only  spending 20 minutes or so, but I ended up browsing for almost an hour. It was worth it. I got several great novels, Including The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett, I have the other two in this series Chasing Vermeer and The Calder Game, but The Wright 3 has eluded me, until today! (These books are amazing and unique, I highly recommend them!) I also bought several really good picture books and a couple of non fiction books, including one that is 50 pirate biographies, I know that one will be popular! I started adding picture books to my classroom library last year and I was amazed by how much my kids liked them, and how often I could use them in a lesson. Now I’m always looking for good 3rd-4th grade level picture books.

Ok, onto my progress! The easiest way to tell you about what I did today is just to show you, so here we go!

Classroom under construction: Altering this cabinet to fit my needs!

Classroom under construction: Altering this cabinet to fit my needs!

I literally had to climb inside this cabinet to get to the back peg holes drilled!

I literally had to climb inside this cabinet to get to the back peg holes drilled!

Ta-Da! Now my cabinet is ready for my classroom sets of books.

Ta-Da! Now my cabinet is ready for my classroom sets of books.

All my class sets of books in their new home, dont they look happy! (And organized?!)

All my class sets of books in their new home, don't they look happy! (And organized?!)

Ok, I’m going to call that a day. I did WAY more today in my room, but I want to do it justice and I’m out. So more about Operation Classroom Library tomorrow.