<p>Just received a flyer for a scholastic book sale…</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, what are other parents thoughts about the Scholastic book sale? Did you like them when your kids were little? Not care for them?</p>
<p>My mom used to buy me books at the scholastic book sale…but I remember there were at least a few that I never got around to reading.</p>
<p>Not a parent, but as a student, I have to say that I LOVED these when I was in elementary school. I loved reading, and these were my favorite school events. I would get a book or two each time (on whatever my parents could afford to give me), and it was very exciting. Given that my purchases were quite limited, I was always spending a lot of time browsing and making sure to get books I really liked (usually ones that the library didn’t have or ones that were out and had a long waiting list).</p>
<p>I loved them for my D. I remember loving them when I was a kid, eons ago. I still have a book that I got in about 5th grade, *Etiquette for Young Moderns<a href=“copyright%201966,%2035%20cents”>/I</a>, which I’ve saved as a sort of historical artifact. </p>
<p>It contains such helpful things as instructions on seating for a formal dinner party: “You [the hostess] lead the way into the dining room. Following you, the boys either accompany their dates or stand aside to let the girls enter first. For parties or eight or more, it’s a good idea to put place cards at each place, alternating boys and girls. However, if you don’t use place cards, your guests should wait for you to tell them where to sit. Then the boys seat the girls on their right before sitting down themselves.” (Right, that’s exactly how my D’s parties went!)</p>
<p>And April is Admitted Students month, so seniors, listen up: “A visit to a school or college is no time to blossom forth in that ‘crazy’ shirt or jacket you bought on a whim. It might be fun to appear in something off-beat at home, among people you know ell, but you’ll embarass your host or hostess if you startle their school friends by appearing in something that screams for attention. Conservative good taste is important for school weekends.”</p>
<p>I think their books are reasonably priced, something for every price range. I do think they sell a lot of junk, but there are good buys for good books there also.</p>
<p>The one time I let my kids buy whatever they wanted was at the annual Scholastic book sale at our school. I’ve always been big on reading and encouraging my kids to read.</p>
<p>That said, you can support it or not. There is nothing lost by checking it out and seeing if you like what is available, etc.</p>
<p>Anything that gets books to kids I love.</p>
<p>This brings back fond memories. I always volunteered to help with the book sale at my Ds’ school and it was such fun watching the kids be so excited about books! The best part was seeing what choices they made. Some of them were pretty funny! I agree with ebeeeee that anything that encourages kids to read is a good thing.</p>
<p>My youngest is still in middle school, so they have these at back to school night. In my opinion, they focus more on tchotchkes & poorly written books from movies/tv series that are mostly pictures rather than real books. It’s been many years since we actually bought something from the Scholastic fairs.</p>
<p>I have also found the quality of the books (paper & binding) they sell is a step below what you would get in a traditional book store or on Amazon.</p>
<p>I always liked it, and so did my kids, but I agree that in more recent years there were too many junk items.</p>
<p>I was the book fair chair for 5 yrs. The kids love the book fair. I loved seeing them come in at recess and sitting on the floor reading. What I didn’t like was all the “junk” that they sent. Sometimes we would hide the most offensive junk and not put it out. I also didn’t like all the books tied into tv shows. My son loved the posters. He still has all the sports posters from the Scholastic book fairs on his bedroom walls. (he is graduating college this May)
I always had the rule with my own kids that they could only buy a book and maybe a poster but no toys.
The teachers also had the wish list where the parents could purchase books for their classroom library.
Our local bookstore also does a “book Fair”. The school gets a certain percent of sales on a given evening. The nice thing is it is every purchase that evening whether you were with the school or not.</p>
<p>Our school did a fair with a local bookstore- but I remember growing up with Scholastic books & I loved it. We didn’t own many books, but with the Scholastic flyer I could get very affordable books. Unfortunately, my reading level was generally above the books included in the flyers selected for our classroom.</p>
<p>( But if your child is only 6mo. that probably isn’t a problem yet)
;)</p>
<p>I think even an old Scrooge like me has a hard time finding a reason to dislike Scholastic books…I’m looking at a flyer right now and the books are affordable and I’d never find little kid books with such variety as the ones I’m seeing in the flyer.</p>
<p>Watch out for the Berenstain bears- for some reason kids love these but they drive their parents insane.
:eek:</p>
<p>Love, love, love Scholastic books! I prefer the monthly fliers that came home over the actual annual book sale, though. I remember pouring over them as a kid, although we could rarely afford to buy any. We pretty much bought new books every month from the fliers.</p>
<p>I never allowed video games, and purchased few toys for my kids, but I ALWAYS bought plenty of books for them and they would read everything we bought. I always had plastic boxes of books in the car for when we were running errands or waiting to pick up a sibling.</p>
<p>My favorite was the annual sale at our local Scholastic distributor. Pretty much everything was at least 50% off. They had large empty boxes that you could fill with books for $25. I went crazy at this sale every year.</p>
<p>I run book sales in the fall before November. In the spring, it is time to run a book swap where kids can bring in almost new books to swap with their friends. Both work and kids love them.</p>
<p>well someone has to be the contrarian …</p>
<p>I LOVED the flyers and the wide assortment of reasonable priced books … I would guess that more than half the books we got for our kids before the age of 10 were from Scholastic … so I think the flyers send home to parents are GREAT.</p>
<p>I think flyers sent to parents are great because the parents can decide what they want to do. That said holding a book fair during school hours with want lists for the kids to fill out and bring home is designed that way on purpose … it is designed to make it uncomfortable for a parent to opt out. I have a problem with our school setting up the parent to be the bad guy for not buying books. IMO anything for sale at school for grades K-8 (or so) shoul be vetted through the parents before it hits the kids.</p>
<p>First/Second Grade teacher memories: in a poor rural school, the little tschotchke’s (erasers, pencils, etc.) that could be bought for 25 cents saved tears. In a class of 24 children, usually only 5-8 parents sent in money @ around $2.95/book. The kids used their own reduced-cost lunch money matching change (25 cents) to be able to buy “something” - a silly eraser - from the book fair. The better off kids from town bought books, and the few PTA moms. In school hours, it was mostly a browsing session for the students, with little buying. In the evenings, when some blue-collar working parents came back with their kids, more was purchased. Wealthy families (all go to one school in a small town) went often to public library and bookstores but also supported the Scholastic Book Fair.</p>
<p>We were taught to send home a checklist of what the kids wanted (beginning of the week), and ALSO guided each child to check one that was near his reading-level, as the children generally checked the shiniest looking cover. They went home with several books checked. </p>
<p>We hoped parents would send in money by week’s end. It was frustrating for the PTA’s at the school, because those were the book parents and they wanted to do the right thing by the school. They staffed it and never gave up. </p>
<p>For quality, I also thought there was a mix of well-done children’s literature and some film/pop sellers. Lots of Clifford the Red Dog, Captain Underpants…but also Lois Lowry, Tommie DePaola and others where the relationship between text and pictures was stimulating. </p>
<p>As for Hollywood or political celebrities/wives who write wordy children’s books (text, text, yak, yak)…don’t get me started!</p>
<p>I did have one irate grandmother return a “Captain Underpants” and was upset it was on the flyer; she also didn’t want to see any Harry Potter on my classroom shelves (witchcraft!).</p>
<p>3togo,</p>
<p>Many times as a kid we filled out the flyers at school as a class activity and then brought them home for our parents to approve…I knew my parents would only buy inexpensive books, so selected those. Some other kids either knew their parents were ok with the expensive hardback books and selected those, or perhaps didn’t care what their parents thought and picked out the expensive ones anyway. Yes, that teeters a bit on setting up parents in a bad position.</p>
<p>The flyer I have doesn’t have the right books on it for this year for my kid, so it will go straight to recycling. As a plan-ahead type person, I looked at the titles and prices and compared to amazon or barnes and noble and was pleased with what I saw…so in a future years, we’ll no doubt be a Scholastic family as well.</p>
<p>I sure think it beats trying to find the titles of books on my own!</p>
<p>What the poorer kids liked most was owning a book. That was exciting. There were many chances from the school to bring home a book to read for h.w. and return the next day, and weekly visits to the school library, but those books weren’t theirs.</p>
<p>But to OWN and keep a shiny new book, that was exciting. I told them they were beginning their own library.</p>
<p>My kids loved being allowed to order a book each time, even when they were reading above the level of the class. There was always some little biography or something they wanted. It was by no means our only sources of books. But it was a treat for my kids, and I was always willing to treat them with books :)</p>