Another thought... Check with your Scholastic rep to see if you can get a "premium" book fair. We convinced our rep that our past sales were worth upgrading our school. Sales went up and the kids were happy with the expanded selection.
I do try to place my first restock order on the day of set-up. If you have a sense of what the kids are looking for - check with your kids here! What I think the kids should be reading does not coincide with what they want to buy! I rely on my boys and their friends (boys and girls) to tell me what looks interesting. We try to order (restocks) in as large a quantity as possible. Whatever does not sell, we send back with the book fair. Remember though, that if you don't get a particular title in, you need to call your rep and let her/him know that you need help. Many times, we find that the rep can source books that the 800 number cannot.
We have had much success with the wish lists submitted from the teachers. Just make sure that the book gets crossed off the list once it is purchased, otherwise there may be duplicate copies purchased.
Also, we have our bookfair in coordination with "Lunch with your child", so that the parents get interaction with kids and teachers, and then get to see the books without being on a time crunch (it stays open all afternoon).
Like njmom says, you get what you get from Scholastic.
You just need to learn to work their system.
Go to their online Chairperson's guide and look for your restock order form. If you have an idea of what you want to offer, you can check out the inventory on the first day and place a restock order right away. This will also show you what is likely to be in your fair.
Your fair should be set up with enough time for the teachers to browse. Set up some snacks for them after school and have all the Wish List stuff out. Invite them to the 'Preview' with a nice note.
The toughest part about the Fair to me was keeping the inventory current. I was constantly placing restock orders. Apparently, different classes like different things.
You can also place your final restock after the fair and deliver any back-ordered books right to the classes in a couple of days.
If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down. <img src=images/smilies/smile.gif>
Other than the books advertised in the Scholastic flyer which gets sent home to the kids, there is no guarantee of what books Scholatic will stock in their book fair. Even then, we go through the flyer during set-up to make sure that we have all the advertised titles. If not, plan to make a call to your rep as well as the 800 number to place a restock order! You'll find that the kids come into the book fair expecting that the advertised titles are in stock.
As far as teacher wish lists - we usually have a teacher preview on the afternoon of set-up and then again before school starts on the first day of the book fair. Teachers have the opportunity to fill out their wish lists. Our PTO also sponsors a raffle (for a Book Fair voucher) for all teachers who complete a wish list.
Just curious if scholastic is working for everyone the same way....
Our rep will not tell me what books we have coming, nor how many of each. The only info I have is that we'll get 787 titles.
Does this sound right? We are to set up on Sunday for a Monday start! The chair last year said that the school volunteers just "made up" the teacher wish lists from what they "thought" they would want. Then the teachers revised them the first day if necessary.
Luckily our "Family night" isn't until Thursday, but I just think it's odd that they won't tell us what books to expect beforehand so we can plan better.
I have been the Scholastic Book Fair Chairperson for the last several years at our small school. We host 2 Fairs, one in the fall and one in the spring. The fall Fair is held during our Family Literature Night and we do about $1200 in sales in just a few hours. We always do Teacher Wish Lists and encourage teachers to choose MANY books in different price ranges.
To make sure everyone gets a book, we ask a few parents to donate book from their home and we put them on a cart. When the children who have money to shop at the Book Fair leave, a volunteer comes by with the cart and the kids that don't have money pick a book from the cart. We make sure the books are in good shape and the kids don't know the difference.
