I know this is going to ruin the surprise but I just have to do a
little bit of bragging – and a little bit of rejoicing.  This
weekend I decided that I wanted to give all of my students a book on
the last day of school.  I wouldn’t have considered this idea
without knowing that The Book Thing existed, knowing that I certainly can’t afford to buy 85 books.

The Book Thing is this amazing place about three blocks from me, where
you can take all the free books you would ever want.  (The books come from donations from everywhere.)  I have
personally taken hundreds (and that is no exaggeration).  In my
opinion, it is one of the jewels of Baltimore.

This Sunday (yesterday), I brought home over 50 books.  About half of
them were for my classroom, for my kids.  But I found an amazing
wealth of board books for Chris and Katie – over 15 of them.
(This is what I wanted to brag about!)  I found Goodnight Moon,
Dr. Seuss’s ABC, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Guess How Much I Love
You, The Going To Bed Book and Barnyard Dance (both by Sandra Boynton –
Caleb, Lisa’s little boy really likes the dance one) and others too –
at least $75 worth of board books.  (I just added it up from the
prices on the back of the book – out of curiosity)  Isn’t that
cool?  So get ready Chris and Katie – I’m sending them book rate
so they won’t be there for awhile.

I’ve stopped collecting books for Noah, Selah, and Jonas – I think I
overwhelmed Meggan.  But I can start again if you want me to!

I LOVE THE BOOK THING!