Do you do bookfairs at your school? We do 1 scholatics and 1 usborne books each year(one in fall and one in spring) and each year we put roughly$8,000- $10,000 of books in the school library--we only take book profit and not money profit from the sales. Maybe an option worth looking into
You guys are great! Thank you so much for all your suggestions and comments. I LOVE the list, and the historical books idea.
Last week I met with 4 Student Council kids and we wrote a youth grant for $300.00 worth of books. They had the BEST ideas! I then met with the librarian and we pulled together a price list to mail along with the grant application. "Captian Underpants" had been vetoed by the previous principal, so we had to get permission to include this series.
I found that with her library's computer system it is nearly impossible to tell what series and Newbery/Caldecott books are missing from the shelves. I can search by author, for instance, but then I have to print pages and pages of their books that can't be sorted Alph. or any other way! Ugh!!!
I did try surveying the teachers - twice. The first try was the papersaving, "pass on the folder" method which got lost. Then the second try, a single sheet survey, and I got one back. . . Next, I may survey parents as suggested.
I'm pretty determined to purchase the kid's wish list with PTO $ if the youth grant is denied. I also want to try the Target Grant, and will include the kids, librarian and teacher's book wish lists. Has anyone had luck with the Target Grant? Any suggestions?
You can also go online to Amazon.com and see what the current bestsellers are for children and teens. Check reviews, of course, to make sure that the books are age-appropriate for your school.
We left it up to the librarian. This year we are purchasing for the guided reading library. They are limited on the books for the 4th and 5th grades. We are going to supply new options for these levels to read.
