One of the largest Scholastic Book Fairs in Minnesota rolled through Creek Valley Elementary School last April, bringing thousands of books with it. “It really is like walking into a Barnes & Noble,” says event chair Jen Berge.
Since 2004, the school has hosted the enormous book sale, selling over $15,000 worth of books every year. According to Scholastic representative Alisa Halak, the 2011 book fair sold 2,678 books for a total of 482,144 reading minutes. Last year, the school netted $14,000, which was used by the media center to stock up on books.
The three-day event kicked off with an ice cream social on April 24, which also gave parents the opportunity to buy books from the wish lists their students compiled earlier in the day. Teachers also created their own wish lists for their classroom, filling bins with books that parents purchase directly.
All week long, teachers wore leis to celebrate the fair, handed out bingo cards for classrooms to win books and ran a lottery offering $5 gift certificates for the winners. While the event is usually held in February, this year’s event coincided with Creek Valley’s Grandparents Day, allowing grandparents to purchase a book for the library and dedicate it to their grandchild.
