Growing up I never bought anything from the book fair. I don’t remember buying even a pencil or bookmark. I would get the catalog & pine over the next Baby Sitters Club or Animorphs book but didn’t dare circle what I wanted. As I’ve mentioned in another post, I was a lawn girl for my dad growing up. So I actually had money! But it just never occurred to me that I could use it to buy my favorite books! My money usually went for clothes, shoes, & school supplies for the academic year. I’m sure if I had asked my dad he would have given me $5—but somehow in my responsible 10 year old mind I just knew that we couldn’t afford it. Or that he would say no.
I don’t know how many of you grew up with a similar experience. I loved window shopping at the book fair growing up, though. Just looking at the sheer number of new releases on the shelves, the cute gel pens, scented erasers, bookmarks. Granted I never walked into a bookstore in my childhood either. To avoid any book fair traumas I wanted to help parents gage how much money to send with their child so that they get an optical book fair shopping experience.
Cost of Books
I have volunteered at my children’s book fairs for the last four years, ever since my son joined public kindergarten. This year everything felt more expensive & I thought back of my experience of not being able to afford anything. A Sonic graphic novel paperback was priced at $16.99 and THERE IS TAXES at the Scholastic book fair! Many children do not realize that. Posters went up from $5 to $5.99–That’s $6.48 for a poster. Dog Man & The Babysitters Club graphic novels started at $12.99 and many other graphic novels & books ranged from $14.99 – $18.99 ($16.23 – $20.57 with taxes).
If you send your child to the bookfair with $10, he will be lucky to get a picture book priced at $8.99 ($9.73 with tax) and under. If you have a 3rd grader and up, you need to send $15 minimum for them to get a chapter book or graphic novel.
But the Novelty is Priceless or full price?
Everyone ends up paying extra for the nostalgia & novelty of having a bookstore at school! The thing is the novelty is real & a lot of what drives sales & makes kids feel awful about not being able to buy anything at the book fair is novelty. I mean, where else can you buy a chocolate shaped calculator? Why is it that as adults we still pine for those scented gel pens or 1990s release of Animorphs we did not get to buy?
Especially for children who do not walk into Barnes & Noble or Half Price Books, much less their local independent book store, the scholastic fair is their only chance to authentically experience bookstore shopping.
My kindergartener this year could not grasp the concept of the book fair until she walked in & then of course she wanted to BUY IT ALL! Prescholers, kindergarteners and first graders have the hardest time understanding that they cannot afford something. So consider that when making a deposit into their Scholastic eWallet.
Find a Balance
I let my daughter splurge this year. Actually, I let my son splurge this year & I’ll tell you why at the end of this post (but also, see intro above ha ha). But first, I do want to touch on the fact that a lot of the kids who walk into the book fair are NOT LOOKING AT THE BOOKS. Oftentimes they will walk out with a cute, furry journal/lock diary worth $14.99 & trinkets that are overpriced.
It is up to you to explain or send a note to the school with specific instructions. For example: “two books and one pen, no posters.” I do not think buying a poster for $6.48 is worth it when you could buy a book for $2 more. Both my kids this year bought miniature notebooks with mechanical pencils which lead just breaks. NOT WORTH the $5.99 or $7.99!
I double photographed the Charmander pen & axolotl bear to show what book fair “trinkets” may look like. He bought some character books that are not literary this year & came with a trinket. Oftentimes those character books like Disney, Lego, or Minecraft are overpriced simply for the figure.
The Adopt a Capybara kit is actually an example of something that was worth it for $14.99. You get the little stuffy, an adoption certificate & a BOOK that describes facts & how to take care of your adopted capybara. You actually won’t find a deal like this on Amazon. Look for the novelty items that make sense & you could not get cheaper elsewhere.
Mila still has a jumbo book fair pen from 3 years ago going strong! Avoid the squishy ones as they tear quickly. A boy came into the bookfair to buy ANOTHER Spider man squishy foam pen within the week! I almost did not want to sell it to him! By contrast, I had a parent walk in specifically to buy “some of those nice book fair pens” because she works in the hospital & shares them in her office space with coworkers! She spend about $90 in pens! Not mechanical pencils. Those are not worth it!
The Ideal Price Range
Scholastic suggests adding $35 to each child’s eWallet for a balanced experience. You can always send cash in a sandwich-sized Ziplock bag, & I suggest a GALLON sized bag for kindergarteners & 1st graders. We had a couple of kids drop $5 bills while shopping & OTHER KIDS WILL PICK IT UP & SAY NOTHING. Like I said, you cannot get much with $5, so finding a five on the floor just means you can cover taxes for yourself! lol
With inflation, I would bump the minimum up to $40. Forty dollars will allow them to buy two books (under $16.99, and a trinket priced under 2.99 (flashy bookmark, buck erasers). For a less budgeted experience $50 would allow two books, a sturdy pen( usually priced at $5.99) & some other trinket like the chocolate calculator.
Can I Come Shop with My Child?
Most schools host the book fair during Open House week, so parents can shop that evening. At our school the book fair opened at 7:30 so that parents could park & come in to shop with their kids before school. However, this time is usually very busy & I am not sure if the principal will allow it again.
I think sending a note is a big help. Some kids are really good about staying within budget, others are bitter about it, and yet others seem to find the cash (coins & dollar bills) to come to the book fair every single day lol.
Making Up For Our Experiences! Reasonably
I know some of us have adult money we are willing to spend at the book fair to make up for our deprived childhoods. And so that is what I did this year. Curing those childhood traumas in a capitalist system, why not? ha ha
This year I finally purchased the revamped Animorphs graphic novels for my son (and for my inner child). Hopefully we add each novel as it is released & he continues to have an interest in the Yeerks vs Andalites war, now involving humans. His generation’s series is Dog Man, and we have sporadically been buying the releases. I preordered him Big Jim Believes I hope my daughter also finds her series as she grows up. There is just something about having a library of favorites that I think makes childhood wholehearted.
That said, we do not want to over compensate & let our kids get ripped off ! Setting limits & a budget ensure they appreciate what they do get to purchase & make of their book fair shopping a memorable experience.
You Can Share the Fair
Some schools only have one book fair a year, others have Fall & Spring fairs, so that is also something to consider when budgeting. Each school retains 25% of all book fair sales to use as discretory library funds. Most school are conscious of students that cannot spend nowadays & offer freebies or other activities like guessing candy in a jar for a chance to win it that makes everyone attending the book fair feel like a winner.
If you attend the fair you can donate cash into the “share the fair” box. Or you could always add money to a specific child or the librarian through eWallet. I have seen some librarians get “book fairy” donations on Tik Tok.
Our librarian allows a pool of kids (nominated by teachers) in each grade to come choose a book from the sales table & a pencil or bookmark at the end of the fair. One little 1st grader in this group walked out that day beaming, he said: “I’m glad I got something! I didn’t think I was going to get anything at the book fair!” And that just made me so happy for him.
Biblioterika 