Story by Gini Davis

With its light, bright, spacious new digs, the annual Scholastic Book Fair at Creswell Middle School invited students and their families to linger and browse, particularly on Family Night, held from 3:20 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on March 2.

The large, window-lined second-floor library at the new CMS building provided the venue for this year's Book Fair, which was held from March 1 through March 5.

"This is our first year having it here, and it was really nice setting it up here," said educational assistant Suzanne Amos, who shares the CMS librarian job with Kim Jordan..

"We had five crates [of books and other items], like we normally have, but the kids thought [the Book Fair] seemed a lot smaller because there's so much more space," Amos added.

The Scholastic Book Fair offers books at various reading levels and representing multiple genres, including science fiction and fantasy, mysteries, historical fiction, adventure, manga, young adult, sports, activities, and entertainment.

Computer software, posters, pencils and other non-book items are also available for purchase.

Students are permitted to shop the weeklong Book Fair before school, during lunch and after school.

Family Night, held on Tuesday, also offered a steady stream of students, their parents and siblings a chance to shop while enjoying free refreshments.

In addition, for every $5 they spent at the Book Fair, students were given a slip to fill out for a chance to win a special lunch for themselves and a friend.

Eight student volunteers, Tiernan Pietsch, Rebecca Bowers, Callie Cox, Regan Dunn, Olivia Powell, Tarrin Campbell, Shalene Mesa and Jade Holmberg, assisted Amos with this year's Book Fair.

The annual event is a fundraiser for the CMS library. This year's Scholastic Book Fair raised a total of $1,900. Ordinarily, the school keeps 40 percent of the profit from sales, but, as Amos explained, "since our total sales reached over $1,800, we earned 50 percent profit."

The $800 net (after expenses) will be used to purchase new books for the CMS library.

"The book fair went very well; I'm pleased," Amos said.