Planning for the Scholastic Book Fair

Today, Mrs. Deep and I began to plan for the Scholastic Book Fair. Mrs. Deep has been participating in the Scholastic Book Fair for 6 consecutive years. Mrs. Deep has had a lot of experience with setting up and running the Book Fairs. Mrs. Deep stated that she likes to use Scholastic instead of other organizations for the book fairs because they are very organized, keep detailed records of purchased items, and offer incentives for schools who allow them to come set up their book fair. This year, because Mrs. Deep has used them for 6 years in a row, has earned $100 dollars in Scholastic Dollars. These Scholastic Dollars allow her to buy and get items for the library for free! Over the years, Mrs. Deep has gotten book shelves, rocking chairs, and various inspirational posters for free using the Scholastic Dollars. Another incentive that Mrs. Deep earned for the school is a $5 off coupon that she can give to every teacher in the school.


Mrs. Deep also explained to me how she has learned to set up and run the Book Fair so that it is less stress on her. Mrs. Deep prefers to set up the Book Fair and have it open on a Friday. Then, she will close the book fair early on the last Friday. Mrs. Deep also asked teachers to only allow the students to come to the book fair during their rotation time, not in the morning. The morning is reserved for parents who wish to stop buy and purchase items. Additionally, Mrs. Deep will request for 4th and 5th grade students on Principals Honors (All A's with a 95 or above average) to come and help with the sells in the morning. This gives Mrs. Deep the freedom to still help other students and teachers within the library to check out books, answer questions, and run reports. Mrs. Deep also said that the first book fair does not bring in as much money. The library can earn 25% of the profit. However, the second book fair that year, they earn a little higher percentage. Also, Mrs. Deep looks at what books are being bought and sees if they are Accelerated Reader books. She checks to see if they have a quiz that goes along with them. If they are popular, they are an AR book and have a quiz, she uses the money from the second book fair to purchase the books to add to the library's collection.

I also helped Mrs. Deep to create the newsletter to go home with the students. Mrs. Deep logged into her Scholastic account online, and we went to the premade form under her account. We edited the dates and the times to fit our needs for this book fair. Mrs. Deep also explained the new eWallet purchasing procedure that was implemented last year. Mrs. Deep allowed students to pay with checks/cash the first 5 years she conducted the book fair. However, last year she explored the Scholastic's eWallet option. Parents/guardians could create an account online, create an eWallet with a certain allotted amount of money, and the child would be able to purchase items from the store without having to keep up with the check or cash. Mrs. Deep explained that when she logged on to her account in the mornings of the book fair, she would receive an email saying that a parent/guardian purchased an eWallet. She would print out that eWallet booklet, with the bar code inside, and give it to the child. When they were ready to check out, she would scan the bar code, and the money would be deducted from that eWallet. At the end of the book fair, the eWallet would expire.

I look forward to working with Mrs. Deep in the Book Fair within the next few weeks. I feel like this will be a great experience and that it will allow me to work with more of the library's patrons. I can't wait!