By Grace Usher
Most folks remember their favorite books they read as a child. The smell of a old, dusty bound book from the library, the way the real world disappeared while the words swept the reader into another world with new adventures.
As adults, readers universally connect to a particular genre, or story. There is a special group in Lake Havasu City taking its passion for reading and sharing it with their community in a magical way.
photo courtesy Mary Garcia-Gomez
The Starline Mini Book Fairies are part of an international group, The Book Fairies. The intention of the group is to find particular books they have read and enjoyed, and hide them in places for others to find and enjoy. Similar to the painted rock trend, anyone who finds these books can keep them or hide them again.
The Starline Mini Book Fairies is a club at Starline Elementary School led by parent volunteer, Mary Garcia-Gomez.
“I had hid books personally and saw different groups online. You just read a book and hide it to share. We also follow the International events. We started [at Starline] right after Winter Break” Garcia-Gomez said.
photo courtesy Mary Garcia-Gomez
The group of third- to sixth-graders meets weekly during their lunch period to discuss books they plan to hide that week.
The group decides which books to hide based on grade level, special holidays, or genre of the month establish by the school.
Once the group randomly selects which grade level to hide for, they make sure they have one book per student of that grade level and prepare the book for hiding. Each book is marked with a special Book Fairies sticker, and wrapped with a trademark green ribbon. The books are them hidden near the classrooms and play areas of the grade for students to find and either keep or rehide.
photo courtesy Mary Garcia-Gomez
Jan. 27 is Lewis Carroll’s birthday. To celebrate, the group hid “Alice in Wonderland,” as tribute to the author.
“I am also teaching the kids how to use Instagram so they can post their found books. They can then follow book fairies all around the world. We are growing so quickly with our Instagram page at almost 60 followers,” Garcia-Gomez said.
The Starline Mini Book Fairies are joining the international book fairies with sharing the magic of reading to Lake Havasu youth. The group hopes that other schools with catch on to the trend and begin clubs of their own.
The Book Fairies International
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