Diva Girl is in a 3/4 split this year and to accommodate the wide variety of reading levels and interests in the class her teachers sent home both the Lucky (1-3) and Arrow (4-6) book clubs. Which is great from a "yippee! more books to choose from!" standpoint, but not so much from the "uh oh, more books to choose from" perspective. I guess I should just count myself lucky that both of The Ladies aren't in school; I don't need to imagine the damage I could do if I had access to Elf and See Saw as well--I've been to the website.

I only ordered three books from Arrow this time. Sabrina is new to this book club, and she's a young grade four anyway, so while there are lots of items to tempt me here, she's just not ready for most of them yet.

Last month we read Frindle together and she's been begging me for more Andrew Clements ever since. It's almost like Scholastic was reading her mind, offering up Lunch Money fro $4.99. I haven't read this one yet, but based on how much we enjoyed Frindle I feel like it's money well spent.

We also ordered Confessions From the Principal's Chair, also $4.99. Neither one of us has heard anything about this book, but the premise--people mistake the new girl in school for the principal and hilarity ensues--sounded fun, especially since Diva Girl is the new girl in school.

At $11.99 our last choice was a bit of a splurge, but well worth it I think. Last year as part of my "buy more non-fiction project I added A Poppy Is To Remember (coincidentally offered by Lucky this month) to our book shelves. This year I'm ordering In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem as a companion piece. I think it's important that The Ladies have resources that make Remembrance Day more than the day you can wear your Guide uniform to school and "In Flanders Fields" more than just a poem that every school kid is forced to memorize. With these two texts, I think I've accomplished that.

The Really hard choices came with the Lucky flyer, where I could easily have spent all of my book budget and then some.

The Great Estimations book jumped out at me as soon as I looked at the flyer. A few years ago I never would have considered the idea of a "math library" but I've become a convert. Picture books about math concepts are a great way of enriching learning and making it different and fun. At $3.99, this book will fit right in on our shelves.

Just in time for Hallowe'en is Nighttime: Too Scared To Sleep. Diva Girl is more about the fairies than the things that go bump in the night, but I figure that for $2.99 at the very least I can toss it into my (snazzy new) teacher bag to use during those inevitable classroom lulls.

Another season choice was Hallowe'en Nights: 21 Spooktacular Poems. If last year's goal was to start building a math library, this year's is poetry. Seems to me that seasonal poetry is a good place to start, especially when it's only $4.99

And of course, I couldn't resist the Bunnicula Pack, featuring all four of the tales in this series. I've acquired a fair selection of ghost and goblin picture books over the years, but other than Junie B. Jones First Grader At Last: Boo and I Mean It (also offered this month), we don't have any chapter books. Bunnicula is the perfect place to start; I remember these stories from when I was in school and can't wait to share the punny fun with Sabrina.

Speaking of fairies, the newest Rainbow Magic book was a no-brainer for us. Having completed our Rainbow and Weather Fairies collections, we've moved on to Jewel Fairies now. At $5.99 it's still cheaper than Chapters, plus it comes with a fun fuzzy pen.

Our final selection was A Lime, A Mime, A Pool of Slime: More About Nouns. As an English Teahcer and an admitted grammar geek I could hardly be expected to resist a book about nouns. Especially when it was only $3.99!

So, that's it. That's my list. How about you? What did you find irresistable at Scholastic this month?

(Oh! And don't forget to enter my contest!)