Scholastic Book Fair Is Coming!

I'm so excited that the Scholastic Book Fair will be starting this Thursday, April 23rd and run through Friday May 1st. We will be open weekdays 9:00am-3:30pm. On Tuesday April 28th we will be staying open after school until 6:30pm. We will also be open during the Sock Hop for those families attending this  fun event. Please visit the Book Fair Homepage for more information. New this time is a Book Fair app that you can download through the iTunes store or GooglePlay. Click here for more information about the app. This app is a great way for you, as the parent, to find out information quickly about a book. After downloading the app, you can scan the cover and find out reading level, appropriate age and grade, book summary, videos, and podcasts. This is a very helpful app. I've downloaded it and played around with it on the preview box of books.

Also, our Online Book Fair will be available from April 28th-May 8th. If there are books that you and your child can't find, or books for older or younger children the Online Fair is perfect. Any books that are ordered on the Online Book Fair will be delivered to Hollywood and there is no shipping and handling charges. This is a perfect way to get books for summer reading. If you want the books to be a surprise for your child(ren), just send me an email letting me know that you ordered and I will let you know when they come in.

If you have any questions, please email Miss Hazuda or Mrs. Bulvin.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda (@HESMediaCenter)

The Winner of March Book Madness Is...

When Mrs. Bulvin and I started planning March Book Madness back in January/February, I never thought that it would be such a success! Everyone from Kindergarten though 5th Grade enjoyed reading all the picture books and there was a lot of great discussions happening about the books! Everyone had their favorites and near the end there were some hard choices that had to be made! Even Mrs. Scaggs, our substitute for Mrs. Bulvin before Spring Break, even made a tee-shirt advertising her favorite.

It came down to Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds versus Chester by Melanie Watt. There were strong feelings about each books and why they should win. But after all the votes were counted, Chester by Melanie Watt was the winner!

The students have been checking out all the runners-up throughout this past week. Everyone is enjoying sharing these great picture books with their families. No matter how old you are, picture books are still important.

Book Fair will be starting on Thursday April 23rd. Be on the lookout for a post about the Book Fair soon!

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda (@HESMediaCenter)

Author Timothy Young Visited HES

On March 26, 2015 I was thrilled to have author and illustrator Timothy Young visit us at Hollywood Elementary School. He has authored and illustrated five books, including one of my all time favorites The Angry Little Puffin. 

Students in Kindergarten through Third Grade, and Fifth Grade were able to come to the Media Center to listen to Timothy Young. He talked to the students about his various jobs that he had before becoming an author. My favorite was hearing about his work on Pee-Wee's Playhouse! I loved that show! The students also got to hear Timothy Young read his books aloud. I personally find this so interesting to hear an author read his/her own work. It gives you an idea on how he/she intended the book to sound. Our morning and afternoon Pre-K students got to hear Timothy Young read his books when he visited their classroom. He even drew the Puffin for them!

As Mr. Young talked about his books, the students and I learned about a third job that he had while making I'm Looking For a Monster. This book is a pop-up book, so Timothy Young was also a paper engineer. This was his first book that was published. His other books are: They're Coming (which had to be read in a scary voice), Shadows on My Wall (which has instructions on how to make shadow puppets), I HATE Picture Books (which has a lot of childhood favorites in it), and The Angry Little Puffin (which is my favorite). Below you can watch the book trailers for The Angry Little Puffin and I HATE Picture Books.

Timothy Young is also an illustrator, so he showed the students a new method to draw. He sometimes uses this to jump start his thinking. Timothy Young started off by scribbling on a white board and then with a different color found the picture hiding in the scribbles. Soon he let the students do the scribbling, and boy did they try to stump him with a lot of scribbles! Many of the students were inspired to try this technique when they got back to class. In fact, when I went into Mrs. Schoch's class the next day I saw a few of these pictures up in her room.


As I said above, The Angry Little Puffin is one of my new favorite books! I had the pleasure of reading an advance readers copy of this book and I just fell in love with it! Puffins are my favorite bird, so I was thrilled beyond belief when Timothy Young emailed me and said that HES would be receiving a statue of The Angry Little Puffin for our library! I might have even done a little happy dance! Here is a picture of Timothy Young, myself, and the statue.


It was a great day for everyone! Thank you to the HES PTA for paying for his visit! If you missed out on purchasing one of Timothy Young's books during our pre-order sale, we will be sending home a form after Spring Break.

Happy Reading!!

Miss Hazuda (@HESMediaCenter)