By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Clanton Intermediate students enjoyed being librarians and principals for a day as a reward for reaching a goal in the school’s Accelerated Reader program.

Points are earned by reading a book and then passing a test on it. Principal Louise Pitts said students had to earn 400 points to earn the reward. Students who earned 500 points were made principals for a day.

There were 18 students who qualified to be a librarian for a day. Six students were principals for a day.

“I think it is just excellent to see that reading has become so important to them,” Pitts said. “They had these goals set and they have strived to meet that,” Pitts said.

She said the “excitement they have shown is just wonderful” to see, Pitts said.

Students were introduced to the many aspects of a school librarian’s job on a day to day basis.

Student Dennis Mitchell said he spent the day “checking out books, running around the school doing errands.”

He said he enjoyed being able to “spend the whole day in the library.”

Mitchell’s favorite author is Rick Riordan.

Student Noelani Stevens spent the day “dusting, vacuuming, kind of sorting the books and I went around doing errands.”

Stevens said to sort the books she “made sure that the spine was facing out,” so students could easily find the book they were looking for.

Her favorite author is Rick Riordan because of his Percy Jackson series. She also enjoys other mythology books.

Zaden Jones helped students return books to the library by checking the books in. She said she scanned the bar codes as the books came in.

Jones favorite books are fiction.

“I like the Dork Diaries series,” Jones said.

Other librarians for the day helped students find what they were looking for.

Tony Stewart helped a student find a book on the shelves. He said the books are sorted by level and that helped him find the book. Brook Freeman also helped students find books through the electronic book search.

Stewart’s favorite books are fantasy. Freeman’s favorite books are the Nancy Drew series.

Although she has many children’s authors she thinks are good, Pitts said her favorite is Judy Blume.

The principals for the day spent time with Pitts as she talked to parents and teachers, helped run errands and walked the halls.

Student Elizjah Doane said he enjoyed having something different to do during the day and having more freedom than sitting in a classroom all day.