Book Fair

Post for April 20, 2010

Book Fair Ideas

Hello,
This week I am in the middle of my spring Scholastic Book Fair and I thought I would just tell you what I do and how I run one. That way, you can use my experience to decide if you want to try this or not.

I hold two Scholastic Book Fairs a year, one in the fall and one in the spring. Scholastic is very good at helping and supporting me with each fair. A few weeks before the fair I receive a box filled with posters to personalize and flyers to send home with the students. I fill in the posters with the dates and times and I make stickers for the flyers. I use Avery # 5163 2” X 4” shipping labels and put the dates and times of the fair on that label. I also use Avery # 5160 address label and put a disclaimer on that. “Please note that not all the books seen in this flyer may be available at our book fair.” This is a good job for kids to do. I have my Library Club members place the stickers on the flyers. They love this job.

About a week before the fair I put up the posters around the school and send the flyers home. I hold my fair in the library and sometimes I decorate for the particular theme that Scholastic is using. The flyers and decorating and posters help to increase the excitement for the fair. Often there is a DVD in the box with information about a few of the books and authors. I preview this ahead of time and choose which segments I plan to show to the students.

When the book fair actually arrives, it is usually delivered in Scholastic’s semi truck with Clifford the Big Red Dog painted on the side. Since I am the librarian and not a classroom teacher, I begin right away. The Scholastic delivery person brings the cases in to the school and I figure out the placement of each case. Most schools will have four or five cases plus boxes, but since we are a large school, I usually get seven cases plus boxes. Inside the cases are shelves with books arranged on them. Inside the boxes are more books, toys, plush animals, activities, games, software, pens and pencils, bookmarks, notepads, stickers, erasers, and more. I place the cases around and open them up, and then my assistant and I begin to organize all this stuff on tables and counters. She takes care of all the pens, pencils and other smaller items and I start to cull the books. I look over all the shelves in the cases carefully and pull off the ones that aren’t appropriate for our school. I put them on the top of the cases for the time being. As we arrange items from the boxes on tables and counters, I use the boxes we empty to pack away the books that I put on top of the cases. This way any inappropriate books are packed away and not seen. There have been times that I wondered if I would have any books left on the shelves! But I have always had enough other books to take their places. I often have volunteers come help with the set up. I am so happy when I can have a creative parent arrange items on a table since decorating is not really my gift. We put the boxes out of sight in a closet or under the tables.

As the fair runs, we have two cashier areas where people can pay. If I see that some items are getting low, I can send a restock request to Scholastic and within a couple of days my restock items will arrive and I put them on the shelves. I usually take a look around and see what titles I know will be popular and actually send a restock order before the fair even starts!


The benefits of holding a book fair are many. You will earn Scholastic Dollars to spend on books or other materials from the Resource Catalog. I always use some credit to buy books off the book fair to put in our library, or books to use for prizes throughout the year, and books for gifts for my helpers. I also have saved up and purchased items of furniture found in the catalog to spice up the library.

If you decide to hold a Scholastic Book Fair, you’ll have a wonderful, busy, exciting time. You can contact Scholastic to learn more. I would recommend attending a free Book Fair Workshop for ideas and help. If you are a classroom teacher as well as the librarian, you might get your Home and School to run a book fair for you.

Have a wonderful week!
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com