In a two-hour time period on March 18, 462 books were taken from the Onekama Consolidated Schools media center. They weren’t checked out, and they will not be returned.

Fortunately, the media center was not the scene of a crime; it was the location of Onekama School’s annual Student Book Exchange.

The Book Exchange event is part of the March is Reading Month celebration. The theme for this year’s Reading Month is “March Mystery Madness.”

Throughout the previous week, students had the opportunity to bring in gently used books and trade them for a book slip. Students then used this book slip to get another book during the exchange.

“The success of the Book Exchange demonstrates our students’ enthusiasm for reading,” commented Onekama Title I teacher Shantel Niederstadt. “Our goals for March is Reading Month are to put books in the hands of our students, to get them fired up about reading, and to establish habits that will lead to the creation of life-long readers.”

Onekama School has activities planned throughout the month to ensure these goals are met.