When I was in elementary school, I was a voracious reader. Every time we
got a scholastic book order form, I circled about half the items and
shoved it in my mom's face. I spent half an hour in the bookstore at
every trip to the mall. When we got separated at Hills or Kmart, my
parents always checked the book section first. We had shelves lining the
upstairs hallways, the basement, the living room... and still we had too
many books to fit and not enough books for my liking. So Mom
brainstormed, and she hit upon an idea that was to become a May
tradition at Luther Memorial Learning Center: the book swap.
What it involves is this. Prior to the book swap, the teachers pass out
slips to the students with spaces to indicate the number of books they
are bringing, their name and grade, and a parent signature. The week of
the book swap, children drop their books off in the designated boxes
outside of their classrooms. Our school has about 180 students, and this
past year there were about 700 books donated. With three or four people
working to sort out the books and put them out on tables according to
their grade level, it usually takes a couple hours to set up the day
before the swap. On the actual day, we always have three or four
helpers, but two is probably sufficient: one to accept the children's
slips, count their books, and put the books in a bag, and one to offer
suggestions to students wandering among the tables trying to make a
selection.
For each book they donate, a child is allowed to
pick one book. It's as simple as that. We learned from experience to let
the older kids go first. Though there tend to be fewer middle schoolers
than younger kids, these students are generally bookworms and are
looking for as much summer reading as they can get their hands on.
Unfortunately, the first year we did this the middle schoolers went
last, and the youngsters had taken most of the chapter books. There were
kindergarteners snubbing Mickey for Johnny Tremain, for crying
out loud! I guess it makes them feel grown-up, but I doubt that every
kindergartener who picked up a 200-page novel was reading years ahead of
their reading level.
There do tend to be more books at the
lowest levels than at the higher levels, but that's because all of the
older kids have finished reading such books. As long as we allow the
older students to go first, they always have plenty to choose from. They
are always satisfied, and many return at lunch with dimes clenched in
their fists. After all of the swappers come through in the morning, we
offer the books for ten cents a piece during the lunch periods (it's
always set up in the cafeteria). This way, kids who didn't have a book
to exchange can still pick up something to read for a very reasonable
price. And swappers who just can't get enough books can add to their
collection. There are always students who do this, but the majority of
them tend to take fewer books than they brought. Some even have notes
from their parents on the slips, requesting that their children not
bring home as many books as they are allowed.
The lunch sale
usually makes between ten and twenty dollars, which reimburses my mom
for the money she spends on a nice brand-new hard-bound book, usually an
anthology of some sort, to be awarded to the winner of a raffle in
which all swappers are entered. Whatever extra books remain at the end
of the day go to the Headstart program housed in the school, the school
library, or the Friends of the Library Booksale which occurs in June.
Before my mom instated this program, I had never heard of a book swap.
Now I think no school should be without it. It's a fun way to clear off
those shelves and gather a new load of summer reading. Libraries are
great, but sometimes, especially for kids, it's nice to just have the
knowledge that you can keep the book you're holding in your hand forever
if you want to, and you never have to worry about getting any fines for
forgetting to take it back in time. So if you've never heard of a book
swap either, talk to someone in your child's school about putting one
together. It's fun, it's easy, and it'll be a tradition your school will
want to keep for years to come.
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