Thursday, November 8, 2012

All Star Book Fair

So we just wrapped up our Fall Scholastic Book Fair.  The Fall theme was "All Star Book Fair."  I have to say, after completing two Book Fairs last year, I felt like I had the set up, run, and take down under control.


And I suppose that was a good thing, because the Book Fair was not delivered until the Friday morning the week before the Book Fair.  I didn't really want to spend the night at school getting things set up, so I closed the Media Center except for book returns and with the help of a parent volunteer, got to work setting things up.  By 3:30, everything seemed ready to go for the following week.

I tried to make decorating simply, quick and easy by simply carefully taping over the door decor I already had up so that I wouldn't have to take down and redecorate after the Book Fair.  It worked pretty well.

I used sports items to go with the All Star theme and traced "foam fingers" and megaphones onto bulletin board paper.

Then I simply added some small cut outs of basketballs, footballs and baseballs because they were the easiest to draw and cut out.

Unfortunately, Preview Day had to be moved to Monday since the Book Fair was not ready on Friday.  I think this might have hurt sales a bit.  We made only about 66% of the sales that we made around the same time last year.  It was the end of the month, too, so that might have had something to do with it.

I was glad to see that less of the doodaddy stuff was bought this go round. I followed the advice of  Jenn Underhill of the Three Ring Library blog and made this board to display the junky stuff.


Customers simply had to tell the cashier the number of the item they wished to purchase rather than digging through everything on the table.  Nothing mysteriously disappeared from that section either.  It did take me a couple of hours to put the board together, and I am not sure that it didn't negatively affect sales, but I realize the Book Fair is about getting books in kids' hands, not selling junky stuff, so I guess it was worth the effort.


If you're looking for some more Book Fair ideas, I've started a Pinterest board that you might like to check out.  There aren't a whole lot of pins on it, yet, but I do add a pin to it from time to time.  Check it out here if you are interested.

Do you have any great Book Fair ideas to share?



4 comments:

  1. Looks good! I always add an extra day to the beginning of my dates that I know we won't be open except for a possible preview, because they only promise that it'll be delivered "1-3 days before the fair." I had too many years where it came Friday at the end of the day and I was running around like crazy getting it ready for Monday! So now I say my dates are Friday to Friday, guaranteeing it'll be there by Thursday afternoon at the latest. I used to feel a little guilty about it but I think my sales go up (and therefore they earn more money off me!) Our sales were down this year too. (I'm also horrible, I don't even unpack half of the "stuff!" If it costs as much as a book, I don't put it out. I'll sell the 50 and 99 cent things, but I forget to unpack the things that cost $3.99.)

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    1. Oooo. I like your sneaky idea of adding an extra day to the Book Fair dates. I might have to try that one for the next Book Fair. I tend to not put everything out either. There isn't room for everything for one thing. And some things are just better left in their boxes for someone else's Book Fair. Thanks for sharing your ideas! =)

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    2. Tomorrow is my book fair's last day and I have done the same as you Jenny. I said it was Friday to Friday. Also, the trinkets that are expensive I like to have put away because of not enough room to display them (cough, cough). :)

      Jo, I LOVE your display board idea! I had many trinkets "walk away" this week. I will keep that idea in mind for my Spring book fair. Thanks for sharing! :)

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    3. Thanks! It took a lot longer to put the board together than I had expected, but I think it was worth the time. There is probably a faster/better way to make the board, but I haven't thought of it yet. LOL Hope your Book Fair was successful. =)

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