I feel like i should know more about this than I do.

[bookishfellow]

Anyone got the skinny on Scholastic Book Fairs? You know, where they set up a display at school (or, as it turns out, daycare) and send home a little catalog? I remember when I was in elementary school, I loved picking out and ordering books, then waiting for them to arrive. Now from a parent's perspective, I wonder about the setup. Are prices

Comments

[ericberlin]

For paperbacks, the prices are often CRAZY lower, as Scholastic licenses books for reprinting, and does so at a smaller trim size and (I think) on cheaper paper. (On a recent flier, they were selling four Newbery honor winners for something like $4.) These are not books that are built to last, but it gets 'em into the hands of the kids.

I am pretty sure, but cannot state for an absolute fact, that the schools get a cut of the books sold. No idea what that percentage is, though.

[kreynard]

I bought my first copy of Anne of Green Gables at a Scholastic Book Fair. I had no idea what kind of journey I was about to embark on...

[lemurtanis]

My mother would not have let me buy ~30 books from the fair every quarter if they weren't discounted.

[erikred]

The Scholastic website has a lot of information available:

http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/experience/

It would appear that schools do get money from hosting a Scholastic book fair, but at a price; critics of Scholastic say that there are more toys than books being offered, and that most of the books are about toys.

When presented with a choice, I tend to knee-jerk support my local, non-chain book stores. I will be very interested to read what you find out.

[bookishfellow]

About half the titles in the flyer at Aa's daycare are Disney/Pixar, Barbie or Tonka tie-ins. But there are some "real" books too.

[530nm330hz]

My kids' school stopped their association with Scholastic last year because the catalogs had shifted from "books Books BOOKS!" to "movie tie-in toys Movie Tie-In Toys MOVIE! TIE-IN! TOYS!" (with the occasional book). Parents (not just us) were complaining that the catalogs were no longer the "encouraging kids to read" things that we had when we were kids but were foisting mindless fad-based consumptionism on our kids. (Sorry, Eric.)

We take our kids to the local indie bookstore every six to eight weeks and give them a budget and gentle guidance.