Libraries are Scrambling for Books

A Sweet Scholastic Treat for Your Friday

It’s Friday. It’s Halloween. Let’s read something that’ll warm the cockles and send us into a festive spirit. Jami Attenberg writes about popping into a Scholastic Book Fair sponsored by her online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer. Through the sponsorship, students at bilingual school Esperanza Academy received stacks of books and enjoyed the full book fair experience. My colleague, Danika Ellis, has written about the inequality of school book fairs, and Attenberg’s project is one small but beautiful way to get books into the hands of more kids. You can hear Attenberg talk about putting together a book fair where every kid walks away with a book here.

Happy Halloween!

The day has arrived at last. Here are some great books and a fun quiz to drop into your Halloween book bag:

What makes for a good October read? You need some pumpkin spice romance in there, but also some thrillers or horror novels to get your heart racing. Adding in werewolves and vampires doesn’t hurt, either. That’s just about the shape of the top five most read books of October on Goodreads, though I think it’s a shame that horror doesn’t make an appearance on even the top 50 list.

Before we get into the top five, let’s talk about some new releases that came out in October that deserve more attention.