“Family Night” at the book fair at the Stafford library was packed with lots of students and lots of parents all coming out to buy their kids books and join in the fun.

The fun started right away with Clifford the Big Red Dog on hand to give hugs to the children. All the students loved getting their picture taken with Clifford.

Many children could be seen joining in on the “Book Walk”. The “Book Walk” is where the children are walking in a circle surrounded with numbered chairs while music is playing. The music stops and everyone grabs a seat. Then a number is picked out of the box and who ever is sitting on that number wins a free book.

Sharan Farmer (Librarian) explained, “Stafford Elementary has been doing this book fair for many years. I have been doing it for at least twelve years. We do it as a fundraiser number one but number two we want to get books in every hand, so we have all the kids come out to the book fair. They have choices of picture books, reading books, spanish books and much more. The theme this year is Super Heroes.”

Farmer went on to say, "All the money that is raised goes back to the library, we turn it into what is called “Scholastic Dollars”. Because we do that we get double our profit and we get about sixty to sixty five percent of the profit. We buy books from Scholastic so the kids get tons and tons of books. All of the profit goes back into books. It really helps the kids this year that First State Bank is paying for the sales tax so the kids don’t have to pay tax on their books which helps them to buy more books."

The fun doesn’t end with “Family Night”, Sharan Farmer explained, "Wednesday is “Lunch with Someone You Love”. The students can bring someone to eat lunch with them and then they go to the book fair. Also on Wednesday and Thursday Tina Haight will be doing her “Book in Every Hand”. This is where all the students get free books. They are given a gift certificate that is good for a free book up to six dollars."

Another great time at Stafford Elementary!