BookBytes

Here's what's happening @ EHUE Library

Q3, 2025-26

by M. Dufalla, Librarian

sparking curiosity, creating connections, empowering learners

Read Across America Week

This year's Read Across America week was held March 2-6, and students had many opportunities to celebrate reading throughout the week.

"Dress like a book character" Day

In keeping with a favorite annual tradition, every student who brought a book character to life was entered into a raffle to star in their very own READ poster.

Bookmark contest

Students showcased their creativity by designing custom bookmarks, with teachers selecting two standout winners from each grade. These winning designs will be reproduced and made available for everyone to use in the library.

Olympic Tournament of Books

After a fierce March Madness-style showdown, students crowned The Wild Robot by Peter Brown as the 2026 Book of the Year!

Read Outside the Shelf

Students took a spin on the wheel to let fate decide which library section they’d explore for their next great read.

Guest Readers

State Senator Lindsey Williams and State Representative Jeremy Shaffer were the library's guest readers during the week.

Rep. Shaffer even brought a special guest with him: his daughter's hamster! He read the book More Adventures According to Humphrey by Betty Birney, which is about a classroom hamster.

Sen. Williams read Say Something by Peter Reynolds, which encourages students to use their voices and actions to make a positive difference in the world.

Battle of the Books Competition

The annual Eden Hall Battle of the Books (BOB) competition took place in late February and early March. The battle has become an annual tradition at Eden Hall. There were a total of 63 teams and 283 students who participated across the three battles with 28 different books read (8 in 4th, and 10 in 5th and 6th). This year's 6th grade winning team completed a 3-peat, becoming the first Battle of the Books team to accomplish that!

BOB kicked off in December, with students forming grade-level teams, choosing managers, and reading the 8–10 selected books. The students also created team posters, planned outfits, and participated in workshops hosted by Northern Tier Regional Library to design t-shirts, and buttons.

On battle night, over three rounds, the teams answered trivia questions from each book and correctly spelled each book’s author. At the end of each grade’s event, the top three teams were announced, as well as the staff favorite poster. The first place winners claimed the coveted BOB Ducks.

The Battles of the Books bring together a multitude of Eden Hall stakeholders, including students, Eden Hall and Pine-Richland staff, the Eden Hall PTO, parents, and local businesses. A huge thank you goes out to Mrs. Strine and Mrs. Beam for all their hard work planning this event.

2026 Battle of the Books Winners

2026 BotB Winners

Grade 4

First Place: The Book Knights

Second Place: Me-Be United

Third Place: Fearless Five

Grade 5:

First Place: Happy Family Time 2.0

Second Place: Starbooks Squad: The Refill

Third Place: The Friend Fries

Grade 6:

First Place: The Winning BOBliophiles (3 time winner!)

Second Place: Dream Team

Third Place: Wicked for Reading

World Read Aloud Day

Every February, we celebrate the joy of reading for World Read Aloud Day. This year’s event on February 4 was extra special for our fourth graders, who enjoyed a virtual visit with Kerry Aradhya, author of Erno Rubik and His Magic Cube. Since the book was a current Battle of the Books selection, students had the unique opportunity to dive deeper into this story. A huge thank you to Mrs. Strine for organizing this event!

Recommended Reads:

2026 Youth Media Award Winners

Award descriptions from the American Library Association; images and book descriptions from Titlewave or the book publisher's website

John Newbery Medal

This is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson

Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together. Instead, it was the day her best friend died. Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counseling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable. There is sadness, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, pain, love. And even as Sage grieves, new, good things enter her life-and she just may find a way to know that she can feel it all.

In accessible, engaging verse and prose, this is a story of a girl's journey to heal, grow, and forgive herself. To read it is to see how many shades there are in grief, and to know that someone understands.

Randolph Caldecott Medal

This is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Fireworks, illustrated by Cátia Chien, written by Matthew Burgess

POP!

As a hot day sizzles into evening, everyone on stoops and sidewalks looks skyward on this special summer night—the Fourth of July! Words and art blossom into flowers of fire across the sky, making this a perfect read for firework enthusiasts in cities and suburbs everywhere.

Coretta Scott King Book Award

This award recognizes outstanding books by African American authors and illustrators. The award encourages the artistic expression of the African American experience via literature and the graphic arts.

Will's Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes

It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.

So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.

And then there’s the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention—and more trouble—than any of them need.

All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home—but is a strong will enough to get them there?

Includes stunning black-and-white illustrations throughout!

Pura Belpré Award

This award is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

The Pecan Sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flores

But with her beloved father dead, two younger siblings to care for, and with a stepmother struggling to make ends meet, Petra has to drop out of school to shell pecans at a factory. Hoping it’s only temporary, she tries not to despair over the grueling work conditions. But after the unhealthy environment leads to tragedy and workers’ already low wages are cut, Petra knows things need to change. She and her coworkers go on strike for higher wages and safer conditions, risking everything they have for the hope of a better future.

Robert F. Seibert Award

This is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.

Alberto Salas plays Paka Paka con la Papa, written by Sara Andrea Fajardo and illustrated by by Juana Martinez-Neal

High up in the Andes mountains of Peru, agricultural scientist Alberto Salas is on a quest. A quest... for potatoes.

Up and down the Andes mountains he goes, playing an epic game of paka paka con la papa, potato hide and seek. These potatoes are special: they have the power to feed the world. Alberto doesn't have a second to waste. The climate is changing and Alberto must find each and every one to save them before they go extinct.

The game is on!

Alberto races and peers and prods. Drives and trods and climbs. Will he find the potato he seeks? Will he win the game of paka paka con la papa?

Author Sara Andrea Fajardo’s spirited biography about “the godfather of potatoes” is paired with lush art by Caldecott-honoree Juana Martinez-Neal to capture how celebrated scientist Alberto Salas brings joy, curiosity, and fun to his very important, life-changing work.

The Schneider Family Book Award

The Schneider Family Book Awards honor an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences

Middle Grade Winner: Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman

It’s been four years since rain fell on the Oklahoma panhandle and the closeness between the Stanton twins has dried up as much as the land. Howe Stanton has been practicing running away and longs for the family to quit this land of dust where only troubles grow. Despite the scoliosis that causes Joanna Stanton near-constant pain, she isn’t ready to give up like her brother. But when Daddy leaves the family behind to find work in California, saving the farm from ruin falls on Howe’s unwilling and Joanna’s uneven shoulders.

To pay the mortgage, Joanna takes a job at the local hospital and discovers purpose in helping others. Howe finds unexpected joy in caring for his father’s horse and escapes in a borrowed book.

But then a tragedy in town reveals the dust’s deadly dangers. With the worst storm of the Dust Bowl bearing down on their home, Howe and Joanna must put aside their differences and work together, or everyone and everything they love will be lost to the dust.

Quarter 3 Library Stats at a Glance

Top 5 Titles

As determined by circulation statistics. Images from Titlewave.

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