I will be sending out notices next week for overdue books from the 2^nd quarter.  Please have your child return these overdue books as soon as possible.  I would much rather have the book returned than to collect money for lost books.  Thank you for your cooperation.

 Monarch Book Nominees

The St.Cletus Library was awarded a grant by the Illinois School Library Media Association.  The grant included a copy of each of the 20 books nominated for the 2012 Monarch Award.  The books nominated each year are outstanding picture books and early readers.  School children in the state of Illinois vote for their favorite Monarch nominee.  In order to vote in the election the students need to read five or more of the books.  We are using our library time to read at least 5 of the Monarch nominees so all of our students in these grades will be able to vote in the election to be held in February.   This exposes the children to some great books such as “A Birthday for Bear”, “Duck at the Door” and “Memoirs of a Goldfish”.  Check out the other titles on the list at www.islma.org/monarch.htm

  Caudill Book Nominees

St. Cletus students in grades 5^th through 8^th are participating in the Caudill program again this year.  Twenty books are on the nomination list and if a student reads 3 of these books, they can vote, along with other eligible students in the state of Illinois, in the election to be held in February.  The top vote getter wins the Caudill award.  All 20 of these books are available in the library.  See www.rcyrba.org for additional information and for the complete list.

Battle of the Books

Students in 5^th & 6^th grades are participating in the 6^th annual Battle of the Books.  Eight books have been selected to be Battle books.  Teams will be established and each student will be expected to read at least 2 of the books on the Battle list.  We will work on this during our library time but students are also expected to be reading these books in their free time.  Our teams will compete against other teams in their homeroom & then the winning team from the other homeroom.  Our final Battle will be against St. Francis Xavier School in May when our winning 5^th grade and 6^th grade teams compete against their winning teams. Our library has a limited number of copies of these books but they are also available at your local public library.  Each child was given a book mark listing all of the Battle books.  Thank you for your cooperation and your help in encouraging your children to read! 

Six Flags Great America Tickets

Students in Kindergarten through 6^th grade are eligible to participate in the Six Flags reading program.  Students need to read 6 hours from now until 3-1-12 to earn a free ticket to Great America.  Forms were handed out during library and require a parent’s signature when they are returned by March 1^st.  This is a voluntary program designed to encourage reading by earning a free ticket to Great America.    

Thank you.

 Book Fair

Thank you to the Book Fair co-chairs, Mary Jo Ramicone and Mary Ellen Staelgraeve, for our very successful Book Fair.  About $10,000 in books were sold.  The profits will be given to us in books and cash so we can buy books for the library.  With the books bought with profits, the books that parents donated to classrooms & to the library, St. Cletus received about 175 new books for our children’s reading pleasure.  In addition, we will receive cash to purchase other books.  Your generosity enables us to have great books to offer our children.  Who doesn’t like to read a brand new book?

Kevin Luthardt was our guest author and illustrator at the book fair.  Mr. Luthardt is the author of several children’s books, such as, “Peep”, “Mine”, “Hats”, “Flying” & “Larabee”.  He did a great presentation for our pre-school through 3^rd grade students.  He described the book making and illustrating process to them.  He then led them through a drawing exercise where they made a robot. 

 Thanks to your generosity, several boxes of gently used books were donated to “Andrea’s Angels”, a charity affiliated with Anderson Books.  They distribute these gently used books to needy schools throughout the United States. 

 The winners of our book mark design contest for the book fair received a $10 off coupon which they were able to use at the book fair.  The winning entries designed a bookmark based on our “Books are Magical” theme.  The creative winners were:

1^st grade           Jenna Battista

2^nd grade          Catie Ramicone

3^rd grade           Mary Jacobs

4^th grade           Maddie Cranny

5^th grade           Emily Rausch

6^th grade           Ryan Kallal

7^th grade           Jack Gostowski

8th grade          Jocelyn Arciniegas

Students in 5^th-8^th grades start the school year doing book talks of books that they read over the summer and then present them to their class.  Students with the best book talks were chosen to record their book talk using our Flip cameras.  Those videotaped book talks, with the help of some of our TLC students & Mrs. Flickinger, were edited with theme music added & then broadcast during the book fair.  The winning book talks were presented by:

Jessica Pulciani 5-116

Grace Luxem                6-118

Christian Davila            6-119

Natalie Nicoletti            7-120

Matt Franklin                7-122

Chase Nacker              8-121

Jocelyn Arciniegas        8-123

We also gave away a free book from students from every homeroom.  The winning students had to either come closest in a guessing game or write a book review.  The students who won free books from the book fair were:

3 Pre-AM        Isabel McKeehan

4 Pre-AM        Charles Wangard

4 Pre-PM         Jake Alessi

All Day Pre      Brendan Bergnach

K-99                Elliot Derat

K-98                Christian Arias

107                  Carson Tischler

108                  Jack Magee

109                  Mike Addari

110                  Anthony Alvarez

111                  Michael Sommerfeld

112                  Liam Ludden

114                  Danny Doheny

115                  John Golden

116                  Jennifer Schrader

117                  Sarah Schultz

118                  Ryan Morfoot

119                  Rhyan Komsthoeft

120                  Cailey Muldoon

122                  Lauren Addari

121                  Meg Kern

123                  Olivia Vranek

Thank you for your support of St. Cletus Library!

The annual Book Fair is coming soon.  Anderson Books will be our book fair vendor & will bring a wide variety of books for your reading pleasure.  The Book Fair will be held in the gym On November 9^th & November 10^th.  The proceeds from our book fair are used to buy new books for the library, new books for literature circles and class sets & also to buy replacement copies for class sets & literature circle books that we are currently using.  My thanks to Mary Ellen Staelgraeve & Mary Jo Ramicone for chairing the book fair.

Your children will have the opportunity to go to the book fair with their classrooms.  At this time, they will make a wish list or they can bring money to buy books.  The book fair will also be open during parent-teacher conferences.  Thank you for your support!

 We have a few contests related to the book fair.  Children in grades 1 through 8 can design a bookmark based on this year’s theme, “Books are Magical”.  One design from each grade level will be chosen & we will make book marks from the winning designs which will be available at the Book Fair & in the library.  The students who make the winning designs will receive a $10 OFF coupon that they can use at the Book Fair.

Author Visit

Kevin Luthardt, author & illustrator of “Peep”, “Larabee”, “You’re Weird”, “ Flying” and other titles, will be visiting our school on Wednesday, November 9^th at 6:30 P.M.  He was at St. Cletus several years ago & was an engaging speaker.  I encourage all families with young children (Pre-school -3^rd grades) to come & enjoy his presentation.  He will also be autographing his books which will be available for sale at the fair.

 Book Donations

We will be collecting gently used books at the book fair.  Anderson Books distributes these donated books to needy children & schools.  If you have some books that are still in good shape, bring them to the book fair.  Share the joy of reading with others.  We will have bins outside Morrissey Hall to collect them.  Thank you.

Overdue Books

Now that the 1^st quarter is over, I will be sending out overdue notices to those children who have overdue books.  Please return these books as soon as possible.  I would much rather have the books returned than money for lost books.  Thank you for your help in getting these books returned in a timely manner.

 I’m happy to report that we applied for a grant from ISLMA (Illinois School Library Media Association) & were awarded a complete set of the 2012 Monarch Book Award nominees for the library.  The Monarch nominees are a great selection of picture books that I will use throughout the coming school year for students in Pre-school through 3^rd grades.

 Our pre-school & Kindergarten students have been using their time in library listening to some great books.  We’ve read “From Anne to Zach”, “Wemberly Worried” & “Rainbow Fish”.  We’ve also discussed how to care for the books that they take back to their classrooms.  As fall approaches, we will be reading lots of Halloween books.

 The 1^st & 2^nd grades enjoyed “Splat the Cat”, “Pirate’s Guide to First Grade” & “Chrysanthemum”.  First & 2^nd grade students can check out 3 books each time they visit the library if they have returned their books from the previous visit.  Please help your child return their books each time they visit the library so they can check out books at each visit.  I ask the 1^st & 2^nd grade students to check out at least 1 reader or chapter book per visit so they can practice their reading.

 Third & 4^th grades enjoyed “Fine,Fine School”, “Rice & Beans” & “Chicks and Salsa”.  They also made a postcard depicting 1 of the books that they read this summer.  They then presented them to the class & tried to convince their classmates to read the book.

Students in 5^th & 6^th grades have been doing book talks about 1 of the books that they read this summer.  The students are presenting them to the class.  Many of these book talks have motivated other students to check out & read these books.  One student from each homeroom in 5^th through 8^th grade will be chosen to videotape their book talk.  It will be displayed on the school’s web site & will be displayed during the book fair in November.

Our 7^th & 8^th grade students have also been doing book talks on 1 of the books that they read this summer.  These book talks have generated interest in many books & students have requested that some of these books be added to our shelves.