Alfred Zector, Book Collector by Kelly DiPucchio

Summary from the publisher:

In his warm, weathered house, stuffed in crannies and nooks, were heaps, rows, and stacks of beloved bound books. The only thing that brings Alfred Zector joy is collecting books. And so he sets out on a mission to collect every last one, until his home on the hill is stretched at the seams with books big and small. But what happens when the rest of the townspeople have nothing left to read? In this clever rhyming story, Alfred Zector discovers what it means to find true joy in a good book.

I chose this as my first book because we are going to be using it as our One School, One Book for the year.  I love the theme behind the story.  Alfred collects all the books in town and no one else has anything to read.  He spends years locked up in his home reading the books and the whole town gets very sad.  At the same time, Alfred gets sad as well and realizes that he needs to share the books with other people.  This theme is something that we are going to share with our students throughout the year, especially at the beginning of the year.  We are going to be having the author, Kelly DiPucchio, visit our school and share what she does as an author and reader.  I am very excited and glad that I work with great people who are helping to make this happen.  This is a great story for introducing the reader's workshop in the first few days or weeks of school.