Unboxing: New Books Arrive

For some reason, I’m drawn to blogs (like Ars Technica) that go into minute detail in describing the latest gadget (like the Kindle). But they don’t just show pictures – they document every step of the package opening process. They call it unboxing. Well, I receive cool stuff that comes in a box too – books. With the start of the school year nigh, I’ve been the proud recipient of a bunch of books I ordered back in June.

So lets get in depth. I bring you the first ever book order unboxing:

Any school librarian will tell you this is a good sight. I typically do a lot of ordering with Follett – they’ve got customer service locked down. This is a fairly small order for the 5th and 6th grade building where I work. It is one of four elementary school libraries I call home.

After opening you usually have to unstuff the boxes. You don’t want those books flying around in there, do you?

At this point I often come down with a case of tunnel vision. Voices become muffled, periphrial vision blurs, and I’m pretty much just interesed in seeing the new books.

Now to the good stuff. Here’s a look inside the first box. A couple of good ones right on top. The new “Ellie McDoodle” and “Game Three (Barnstormers series)“. The nice thing about ordering books for multiple schools is that there are always some titles you forgot about.

Next we sort the books into categories and put them on the mini book cart. If you don’t have mini book carts I highly recommend them. Gotta get the mini book carts.

Try as I might, there are always a few that slip through the cracks. Usually there will be a book or two per order that isn’t right for the grade level. Upon closer inspection I think “The Cat on the Mat is Flat” (see above) is one such book. I’ll take that one to a different, more age appropriate building.

The cart continues to fill up and “oh yeah, I ordered that” moments accrue. By popular demand, I did a couple “Choose Your Own Adventure” titles in this batch. I’m interested to see how those circulate once the year begins. Next up we will go through the packing list and make sure all the books arrived (be happy I did not share this part).

Now the decision must be made: since school is a couple weeks away, I can take a few books home for “research”. Above are a few of the books that I am especially interested in reading. A couple nonfiction, the new Spinelli, a few graphic novels – some of these may turn up in future reviews.

But if I can say just three words about the whole process it would be this: mini. book. cart.

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