This school year, the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park’s Hillside Grade School library has launched a new, fun activity for students dubbed “You’ve Been Booked!”
Librarian Natalie Hartmann curates a collection of books that follow a particular theme. Classes get “booked” by receiving a bag with a book in it hanging from their classroom doorknob. The classroom can keep the book for one to two school days, and the teachers can either read aloud the book or leave the book in a community area for the students to read themselves.
Once the entire class reads the book, they can “book” another class. The “booking” is meant to be a surprise, intending the students to come back to their classroom to find a bag on the door.
Each classroom has a list of the month’s books outside their door and as they check off the books as they read them, they receive a new book.
This month’s theme is “National Hispanic Heritage Month,” and all books selected celebrate Hispanic voices, stories and traditions.
The books for grades K to 2 are “Martina Has Too Many Tías,” “Magic: Once Upon a Faraway Land,” “Plátanos Go with Everything,” “May Your Life Be Deliciosa” and “Paletero Man.”
The books chosen for grades 3 to 6 are “Digging for Words,” “Building an Orchestra of Hope,” “Imagine,” “Turning Pages” and “Areli is a Dreamer.”
“My hope is that ‘You’ve Been Booked’ is a fun and great way to spread the love of
reading here at Hillside Grade School,” Hartmann said.
The “You’ve Been Booked” initiative is planned to continue throughout the school
year.
