Book Fair

The girls bake a lemon pound cake for the School Bake Sale.

There's a lot going on at the girls' school lately. We've had report card pick up, the bake sale, the Fall Dance, and the book fair.

Do you remember the book fairs you used to have in school  as a kid?

I do. Vividly. I remember the inky, newsprinty ad that would come home, listing the books that would be available. I remember filling out the order forms, waiting anxiously for the book fair to start and for my pre-ordered books to be handed to me. I remember the smell of the books, their glossy covers. It was so exciting.

I worked 4 1/2 hours this week at the girls' book fair. I showed up with my mug of coffee and my latest knitting project, because CLEARLY I did not remember what these things were like. It was no sleepy affair. Not only did I not finish my coffee and not knit a single stitch, I almost never stopped herding children to and from the books, and I never sat down.

There were so many hundreds of titles. Some parents sent their children to school that day with money, and those kids tore through there, set on spending every last penny.

 Some kids didn't have money yet, and I helped the littlest of them write their favorite titles down along with the price so they could go home and beg their parents to send them back the next day with cold hard cash.

When my own girls skipped into view I almost jumped up and down with girlish excitement. I took them around to the titles I had seen and thought were interesting. They completely ignored me and got the books they wanted anyway (although I had to put my foot down about the Barbie Princess crap that Mae wanted.)

As I walked through the narrow aisle of books, I couldn't help but notice that, for the most part, the kids were drawn to the very commercial books that had very little to do with reading. Ninjago and Chima character guides, Barbie Princess Paper Purses, Minnie Mouse's Hair Bow.

The kids naturally gravitated towards the books that came with a necklace, a small lego set, glow in the dark pens. And these naturally cost as much as a beautiful hard cover picture book, sometimes more.

I had to take action. I started hiding some of these titles behind the ones I perceived to be of higher quality. I passed judgement on Club Penguin. I banned Barbie. I led 5th grade boys away from Taylor Swift and towards Gary Paulsen. I took the hands of kindergartner girls and showed them the Mo Willems (Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus) as I placed the My Little Pony on the upper shelves.

But for the most part they were un-swayable, those stubborn little imps.

I saw kids crying because they didn't have enough money. I saw a teacher be extremely nasty to her students. I heard a parent demanding to know how her daughter could buy a $2 pencil with $10 and not know where the rest of it went. 'I spended it!" she insisted. Her mother repeated the math lesson until it came out that the little girl had just divvied up the change among her friends.

Working those 4+ hours at the book fair was like conducting a social psychology/marketing/anthropological study in children, literacy, consumerism, and family dynamics.

I can't wait for the next one.