Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Book Fair

We have the Scholastic Book Fair at The Kid's school this week. Each class is invited, during their regular library time, to look for and purchase books. This is my regular volunteer gig, to help with library time, so I was there to help The Kid pick out books and to pay for them. I set a limit on how much he could spend and just turned him loose. This has resulted in some awesome book choices and also some disasters, but I like giving him the freedom to choose on his own.


Most of the other kids had envelopes with cash and I helped them figure out how much they had and what books they could afford. Try explaining $4.99 to a six year old, I dare you.


There were a few kids who had no money and it hurt my heart to see how sad, how excluded they felt. Now, I understand that some people don't have extra money to throw at book sales, especially before Christmas. I really don't have the extra money this month either, but books are just one thing I try to always say yes to. I wish the school would have an alternative for the kids who hadn't brought money so they didn't have to witness the squealing spending frenzy of the rest of their classmates. I wanted to buy a book for every left out kid, but I couldn't.

3 comments:

  1. At our school we put up a big sign encouraging parents to buy a book for another child or a teacher...maybe next year. This might be a project for the PTA.

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  2. That is an excellent idea, Mrs. G! I'll pass it along to the PTO leadership.

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  3. There is not much sadder than a child who wants a book, but cannot get one. Maybe they kids who don't have money can be taken to the library instead?

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