Hosting a Book Fair

How many of you remember the “best week ever!” from when you were a child? Book fairs were the staple of many of our childhoods with Scholastic leading the way. While there are many choices for book fairs today and I absolutely want to talk about them, that’s going to be a later article.

This article is talking about actually hosting a book fair from beginning to end. This is my third year hosting a book fair at my elementary school and it is so neat to see my students’ eyes light up when they realize that the book fair is coming. Even better is that first day when they walk in and see all the books.

For me, the book fair actually starts the prior year. When I finish the previous year’s book fair, my representative always goes ahead and books the next fair. She knows that I want to have mine in December and it’s an insane time for everyone. So before I even start a year, I’ve already got my fair booked. I can still adjust as needed, but at least I have time locked in.

I’m going to be upfront now that I use Scholastic for my book fairs. We don’t really do the flyer orders during the year, but that’s our fair. We have used another in the past, and I’ll talk about that when I talk about the choices, but Scholastic has been our choice except for that one year. I know that a lot of people complain about Scholastic, but I’ve never had a bad experience with them.

So about six weeks before the fair, I get a box of goodies with flyers and posters. In addition, Scholastic offers a Host Hub where I can keep up to date on everything book fair. Each year I host the fair, I learn more and more about how to promote the fair, make it more interactive, and make it better for the kids. I can’t wait to implement the new changes that I discovered.

Once the fair arrives (and let me tell you having an arrival time of the entire day is sometimes frustrating), I start setting it up. While I want the books to be the main focus, I also decorate a little bit. The first year I did the fair, I was more concerned with getting the books in front of the kids. Now, I’ve started adding more decorations.

From tablecloths to decoration, I want the library to be transformed when the kids walk in. I’m very glad to hear the kids talking about the books (and the trinkets), but decorating just makes it more special. This was the first year I had a theme and I tied it right into our library theme. We are the Super Readers and by adding some superhero decorations, I tied that into our fair. I also created a graphic on a cape that said “Not all heroes wear capes, but all heroes read!” That’s what I want my kids to get out of their years with me.

The fair itself is a lot of work, I’m running it from arrival to dismissal and this year I also taught my classes, traveling to the classrooms to teach my lessons. The only help I get is my mom coming in a few days to help me. This means by the time I get home, I’m exhausted.

But it’s all worth it. Although I enjoy the fundraising aspect, the faces of the kids when they walk in for the first time. Or watching them make their wish lists is truly the best part of the whole thing.

But I also work in a Title I school which means that not all of my kids get to take something home from the fair. I’m hoping in the future that I can change that.