Students gather books by the armload

Sisters Elementary School students were excited to hunt for new books among the thousands brought to school in the annual Book Exchange. photo by Jim Cornelius It felt like Christmas at the Sisters Elementary School Library on Thursday, April 29.

Excited students rummaged through piles of books stacked on the floor and on tables around the library, exclaiming over uncovered treasures and gathering up tomes by the armful.

The books were theirs to keep -- all part of the annual Book Exchange, where students bring in their old books from home over two weeks, then select new ones at their new reading level.

The project was a brainstorm from Rossy Gomez-Pullig and is run mostly by parent volunteers with supervision and help from Librarian Marie Phillips.

The volunteers sort and stack the donated books by grade and reading level and supervise the children as they search for books.

This year, children brought in 4,635 books. Overflow books will be donated to local pre-schools and to the Sisters Library for the annual Quilt Show weekend book sale.

According to Phillips, students are allocated a number of books based on the total number brought in, not on a one-for-one basis.

With thousands of books on hand, each child got a nice armload.

The class with the most donated books wins a pizza party. This year, Mr. Powell's class won by bringing in 541 books.

Phillips noted that the project not only encourages children to find new books, it's also a direct form of recycling that teaches children to get a lot of life out of a book.