Book Sale: Game Plan!

This weekend, Half Price Books is hosting a huge clearance sale event on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Whether you have a Half Price Books or not, it's always good to have a game plan when building your classroom library. I know I've walked away with books I don't need or buy duplicates because I go into a sale blind and get overwhelmed by all the books.

Here's a few tips to help you score big on your next book buying trip!

Have a strategy. I make a list of favorite authors, series, and books I'm looking for before going into any book store. I find this helps me focus on books I'm needing for my classroom library. I also write down future book club topics and the numbers in a series I'm currently missing.

This year one of my big game plans was to look for lower level novels. I've done a great job at building up grade level and above novels but I'm in some series need of below grade level reads in the classroom. Before hitting the sale, I wrote down series like June B. Jones, Stink, and Horrible Harry that I wanted to look out for!

It's also important to know what you're getting into. If you're shopping a huge warehouse sale, get a map and know where you're going!

I also make note of favorite authors. A few of my favorites that I'm always looking for: Sarah Weeks, Margaret Petterson Haddix, Roland Smith, Sharon Creech, Wendy Mass, Patricia Riley Giff, Lauren Tarshis and Mike Lupica. I'm also on the lookout for popular series like Stranded, IQ, or I Survived -- those are always popular check-outs in the classroom.

Then it's time to make your selections before heading to the checkout! Know your budget and decide what is a keeper and what goes back to the benches!

So how did I do? I ended up spending $49 on 41 new books for my classroom library! I didn't think $1.20 was too bad for most books. I added books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever that sells for $8 at Scholastic. I paid no more than $2 per book and some books were as low as .50 cents. I bought mostly fiction but I did find two nonfiction books to add to my library.  Plus, I was able to find a small book club set of Fourth Grade Rats and some new copies of Love that Dog for $1 to replace my overly "loved" copies.