This week is our school’s book fair, and seeing the book fair every morning made me think. Why does our school and almost 75,000 others participate in book fairs every year? How did book fairs come to be, and why are they so prominent in so many schools today?
The Scholastic website says that it was started in 1920 by Maurice Robinson in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, where the first Scholastic magazine was published. From then on, they only grew, eventually having clubs in many schools until the “California book fair” held many school book fairs in the early 1980’s, and a year later, Scholastic purchased “California book fairs” in 1981. Since then, Scholastic has been an icon in book fairs around the world.
But this isn’t the first school book fair, with the first one ever recorded in 1952. Showing an author autographing books at a school event, but after that, there weren’t many other recorded events through the 60s-70s until the first official one that we just talked about.
Because Scholastic already had so many ties to schools when they bought the “California school book fairs,” they easily implemented them throughout our school systems.
And, by 1957, already international, it quickly spread to Canada and Europe, making book fairs worldwide and firmly rooting them in many school cultures.
But why do we still keep book fairs around today? Laurel Springs Schools says that in reality, book fairs are usually targeted to students from K-8th grade. This is because they are great at fostering kids who want to read. Giving them a choice on what to read rather than making it almost feel like a chore with assignments can make them not want to keep reading.
For example, if you force someone to read a book they think is boring, especially a young and impressionable kid can give them a pretty bad outlook on books and make them not want to read in general, but if you give them the option to read something that they’re interested in or enjoy, it dosen’t make it seem like a chore, and they are probably going to enjoy reading, and may even take it up as a hobby. But these are not the only reasons bookfairs are still around today. Many schools around the world use them as fundraisers, using the funds to improve the school.
But in reality, scholastic doesn’t have a large impact on what is put in front of us at book fairs, with the librarian usually contributing to almost 70% of the work. Scholastic only gives options for what books are available to buy, with what they call packages. The librarian is the one who chooses what is actually being sold and makes the book fair happen every year.
“I schedule our book fair a year in advance. As time gets closer, I begin working on the smaller details such as advertisement and organization.” Said our school librarian, Emily Silverman.
She is very enthusiastic about the book fair, saying. “The book fair is my favorite week of the year! I love seeing the excitement when students come down to relive their childhood memories of the book fair.” As you can see, our librarian has put a lot of work into making the book fair this year.
School book fairs have been a part of most of our lives, and they have helped more than most people think. Scholastic has firmly rooted itself in modern-day school culture, helping schools and students alike with its bookfairs and clubs. So if you are interested in supporting our school and doing a bit of reading, come down to the library this week and have a great time at our school’s book fair.
