The first week of November brought the Scholastic Book Fair to Woodland Spring Middle School for the first time since the doors opened in 2019. Students and staff alike were excited to have the opportunity to shop for new reading materials throughout the week. The book fair, sponsored by the WSMS library, benefited both the school library and individual teacher classroom libraries, but most importantly, it provided an opportunity for students to fall in love with reading all over again!

I had the pleasure of experiencing the excitement of students as they saw a character they love on the front of a book, and I witnessed students reading the backs of book after book until they found one that intrigued them. I watched as students pulled classmates into the fair to share with them a book they discovered. Yes, a book fair provides funds to keep the school library updated with titles our students are looking for.  It provides teachers with new books to help build classroom libraries or supply materials to implement projects. It provides funds to put toward large purchases or programs we provide for our students, but the work it does for their reading lives far outweighs all other benefits. 

Our library set a rather lofty goal for the first fair. We aimed to sell 500 books! As an incentive to reach this goal, Principal Rodney Sprague volunteered to dye his hair Stallion purple if the goal was met. As books were purchased, students enjoyed observing the rising thermometer posted outside the entrance to the fair and excitement built as the color reached the top. Stallions purchased more than 600 books by the end of the day on Friday! This achievement was celebrated Monday morning when Principal Sprague revealed his purple hair to the student body. Thank you to all of the students, teachers, and parents who helped make our first fair a huge success.