HARLINGEN — “Look at this one. Dog Man,” said Jostan Caraballo as he and some friends browsed through books at the library.
“Dog Man,” Jostan, 10, a fourth grader at Bonham Elementary, said yesterday. “Wow. Look at Captain Underpants.”
It was the last day of the book fair at Bonham, and classes had been taking turns in the library. Jostan and his fellow readers in Joel Gil’s class had quickly filled the library, crowding around tables for a few minutes of reading time. Suddenly Rosie Miller, library media specialist, gave instructions about turning in library books and checking out others.
They jumped up and crowded racks of books set aside for their grade level, then Miller asked, “Do any of you have any money?”
“Yes,” said Alondra Manriquez, 9, who rushed to the table and grabbed her coin purse. She began combing the shelves of books that were for sale, along with numerous other eager readers.
“I really like books because they are fun,” said Jostan. “They really show you a lot of interesting things. When I read them I am in the book. I like being part of everything.”
Gil looked on with satisfaction as the children looked through the books.
“I am really trying to get them so they can relate it to things that have happened in their lives,” he said. “They really enjoy coming in and seeing the volume of books that the book fair offers.”
Meanwhile, Alondra had found a book called “The Sentence,” which she said is part of a series.
“It’s interesting,” she said with a shy grin. “It’s talks about my favorite characters, mean characters that turn nice.”
There was some discussion about the right amount of change, and the woman at the cash register gestured toward a large jar full of mints.
“Guess how many are in the container,” she told Alondra, who then wrote down the number and entered a contest.
