Friday, December 26, 2014
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Stadium Drive Elementary School librarian Tracy Marsco (right) rang up the purchases a student made during the school's book fair.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A Stadium Drive Elementary School student looked at the various books for purchase during the school's book fair.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Any Stadium Drive Elementary School student who donated change to help the school buy books got their name put up on the wall in the library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
There were thousands of book available for purchase during the Scholastic Book Fair at Stadium Drive Elementary School, which lasted from Nov. 19-25.
Stadium Drive librarian Tracy Marsco said the first day of the fair was a big success, with a good amount of the school’s nearly 400 students in grades kindergarten through four participating.
“Interestingly, we had six classes today and pretty much every child bought something,” she said. “We only had one class there was like nine that didn’t. In our two third-grade classes there were only about two or three, but they may come back or they just forgot their money.
“I always tell them they don’t have to (buy any books). We don’t want to push that on people. If they want to it’s a good thing. We do this all for books. The kids bring in their change out of places and Scholastic matches it. So I pull off that amount of book from the fair and we have a drawing and give them to the kids.”
Scholastic will also be conducting book fairs at Stadium Drive Elementary in February and May.
Scholastic guarantees all the books in its catalog will be available should it be ordered. It also decides the theme for the book fair, with the current theme being castles.
Stadium Drive Elementary’s library was made up in a castle theme, with medieval music playing as well.
“We decorate because it makes it fun and exciting,” Marsco said.
The children could also bring in spare change, with the money going toward the Kids in Need Foundation and Kids in Distressed Situations charities. Scholastic matched all donations.
“There’s great places for loose change,” Marsco said. “Like in the car – maybe help mom and dad clean the car. Clean out the sofa or down by the washing machine.”
Marsco said she feels the best part of the book fair is it raises awareness and interest in reading among the students.
“It’s great to get a new book and get excited about reading,” she said. “That’s mainly what I’m excited about is I want them to be excited about it. All this kind of stuff makes them excited to go get a book and buy it.
“You still have to read. You can’t get through life without reading. That’s always my hope. We always make sure everybody gets a book in their hands somehow.”