Book fair comes to elementary school

The Scholastic Book Fair visited Sisters Elementary School last week. The sale was a fund-raiser for the fourth grade field trip.

According to elementary school librarian Marie Phillips, the sale has been a fund-raiser for the fourth grade for the last four or five years.

"I used to do it by myself, and the money went for buying books, but I couldn't do it on my own anymore, so the fourth grade wanted to take it over and it's a good fund-raiser for them," she said.

Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. The company delivers the book fair to the school in portable cases with supplemental boxes of books and products that Phillips calls "fun, cutesy stuff" that can be displayed on tables.

"We tried doing a book fair without all the 'fun, cutesy stuff,' and it was very dull and boring," she said.

"The fourth grade teachers have a committee and then the parents have a set-up committee. They set it up; they decorate. They make it look fancy and everything," said Phillips. In fact, the committee transforms the school's gymnasium into a fantasy land of books and accessories.

Parents bring their children to help set up the fair, "so that they get to be a part of working on the book fair and doing some of that. Basically, the parents run it," Phillips said.

The school receives 25 percent of the profits that are generated from this fair. In the spring the school also has a "buy-one-get-one-free" book fair.

"We can't do a 'buy-one-get-one-free' book fair unless we have a 'for-profit' book fair," Phillips said. "They usually end up making right around $2,500. It's like $10,000 worth of sales."

Scholastic books are geared for grades K-8. For the elementary school's sale the number of middle school books are minimized.

The school incorporates the book fair at the same time as fall parent-teacher conferences to make it easy for parents to attend. Often parents reward students' achievement by buying books. Also if their child needs help with reading, "... they buy for that reason, so it's a win win," said Phillips.

Money is available for families that cannot afford to purchase books.

"A family donated money to make sure that kids who couldn't afford books would at least get one book. The teachers kept an eye on that and sent them down to get a book," Phillips said.

Big sellers this year for the girls were the "Spy Girl" and the Disney "High School Musical" series. Best sellers for the boys covered subjects like dragons, pirates and wizards. Harry Potter books were also available.

"Those aren't real big sellers because of the age of the kids here. It's real hard reading," said Phillips.