Post any information about your book fair experience here. What worked, what didn't, ideas, questions...anything! Make sure to comment and answer posts and questions. by

2023-12-06 16:15:33 UTC

Anyone done Bedford Falls? I know Bridget is doing one in February.

2023-12-06 16:16:12 UTC

We have done Literati three times now. I was impressed at first, but after the first two, I was less impressed. They sent only a few posters and do not replenish those. I also think the students are tired of the books and "extras".

We are trying Bedford Falls in February. I'm hopeful!

2023-12-06 16:16:54 UTC

If you will email me when you have a book fair, I will advertise it to my virtual students so they can come if it is at their base school! Elementary, middle, and/or high!

Amanda Stavropoulos

astavropoulos@forsyth.k12.ga.us

2023-12-06 16:17:24 UTC

We just had a Scholastic fair before Thanksgiving. It went very smoothly and we had alot of parent support. We had 1 parent take care of the pens, posters, etc - only 1 display item of each was out. Kids had to pass by the books before getting to the "toy" section. It was much more successful from both a shopping and teacher perspective.

2023-12-06 16:17:45 UTC

We had a lot of issues with Scholastic this year. Over half of the young adult selection was completely age-inappropriate for our students. Then, we had issues with restocking. I am looking to switch fairs after our experiences this year.

2023-12-06 16:17:47 UTC

Bridget - DeSana

We are doing Bedford Falls end of February - very excited. Higher quality of books. Deliver and set up day before, take down the day after. Very open to my 'asks' - even including some young elementary for siblings and children of teachers. Adding Tome books too.

Dates - Feb 28-Mar 6

2023-12-06 16:18:54 UTC

Rachel (Matt)-Did Scholastic and Literatti this year. We have glows and grows with both.

Scholastic-able to opt out of questionable material and didn't receive any. Were also able to still get a wide variety of appropriate diversity books (cultural). Always lots of presentation aides for set up. Takes time to set up.

Literatti - All we had to do was open the cabinets! So fast to set up. Did receive books that were not age appropriate, but their age range for elementary is about k-8. So we knew they were coming. They WILL send a book list first so you can preview the books.

Made about the same about with both fairs.

2023-12-06 16:19:22 UTC

We are not doing Scholastic anymore. The customer service was less than impressive. Open to trying something new in Spring. Debating between Bedford Falls and Literati.

2023-12-06 16:20:57 UTC

Myself and our principal will peruse the cases after I set them up and pull those books that are inappropriate for the fair.

2023-12-06 16:21:19 UTC

Amy- New Hope

We used Literati last spring and this fall. The replenishment is very frustrating bc it doesn't arrive in time. There were less posters this fall than in the spring, about half of what we had in the fall.

The teachers like Literati vs. Scholastic, but they don't have some of the more popular titles, as they are only sold by Scholastic. There is also less "junk" than Scholastic, and the registers work so much better than Scholastic.

I do like the fact that I can use my rewards to purchase Follett books, you get more percentage than opting for the cash. Even more so if you have 2 per year.

2023-12-06 16:25:01 UTC

Jenelle - Big Creek

This was my first year "in charge" of book fair - I used Scholastic. I was quite impressed with restock and communication with rep (Amelia).

One box of restock was sent full destroyed (I'm guessing by UPS). I sent picture of box; they sent new stock immediately. I received the next day.

I was curious if different titles and no extra stuff affected profit (i.e. Scholastic vs. Literati).

Thanks for all the insight! I wasn't able to attend the meeting today.

lnewberry8 — 2023-12-18 19:59:42 UTC

April at EFHS did a small book fair (teachers only) from https://paperpie.com/

She made $500 for her makerspace in 2 mornings, and she did no set up. The rep did everything, and no questionable materials.