By: Julianne Castro
The Language Arts Department kicked off the school year with their Back to School Book Fair on September 15 to 17, 2015, with a last day sale on the 18th. It was held during the middle school students’ lunch period and after classes from 3:10 to 4:00PM. Although January is the official month for the school’s yearly Book Fair during Catholic Schools Week, September is also an apt time as National Literacy Month. The books sold in this fair were left over from last year’s book fair.
“Just for the FUN of it…READ!” was the slogan written below the mustaches on the Scholastic bookmarks given with each purchase. The Santa Barbara Catholic School students entertained themselves with the cutout mustaches, putting on a character as one often does when reading a story. Other take-home goodies were Inside Out and Avenger posters.
Ms. Kristine Roxas, Language Arts Teacher for 6th grade and 7B, along with student volunteers from 6th to 8th grade arranged the books neatly into categories: $2, $3, 50% OFF, and Hardbound books for $5.
The books for sale covered a wide range of genres. For sale for $2, Classics such as Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl” shared the same space with “The Girl Who Was on Fire,” an anthology of essays about Suzanne Collin’s popular Hunger Games Trilogy, and “Goosebumps,” R.L. Stine’s iconic Horror series for children. Lois Lowry’s Dystopian novel, “The Giver,” and a compilation of Lincon Peirce’s witty children’s comic strips, “Big Nate: The Crowd Goes Wild” were among the $3 books.
The hardbound and newly released books were the clear and quickly sold “bestsellers.” Adding to their selling points were their halved prices for most. Angelica Gomez, a 7th grade volunteer, specified, “Teen books, Sci-Fi, and Series books” as the attention-grabbers compared to the older and History books.
The newer books for 50% off were both informational and intriguing — “Egyptian Mythology” by Donna Jo Napoli, “Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods” by Rick Riordan, and Ripley’s “Believe It or Not 2015 Special Edition” to name a few. The hardbound books covered more of the Young Adult genre, such as Kathryn Lasky’s Fantasy series, “Guardians of the Ga’Hoole: The Rise of a Legend” and Rooman Philbrick’s unconventional novel, “Freak the Mighty.”
According to Ms. Roxas, the middle school students brought in the most sales. The lower grade students were able to visit the fair after classes. “I would have wanted to accommodate the lower grades however, my class schedule only permitted me on some days. However, the lower graders were able to buy after school,” she said. It can be safely said that Shannon Hale’s “Ever After High: A Wonderlandiful World” held its own among its more mature hardbound companions. Brydon Balbin, another 7th grade volunteer, confirmed the general age group of the buyers, “the 6th to 8th graders bought the most books.”
Most books were sold by the second day. The tables were bare by Friday. Ms. Roxas and the volunteers considered the fair a success. Volunteer Aliyah Bagroh justified the success with a word, “interesting,” describing the books themselves first and foremost before sales. The Book Fair was exciting and appealing to all types of readers, and perhaps turned some self-professed “non-readers” into “new-readers.” Congratulations!