Ohmystinkinheck

This is where I spent my morning volunteering …

What? You can’t tell what I was doing? Selling cheap toys and knick-knacks, that’s what. Oh wait, no … I was encouraging children to read - at least those children that could wade through all the junk that Scholastic now sells under the guise of a “book fair” to even GET to the books.

I ask you … do books belong at a book fair?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fun twisty pens…

Heck, I don’t even mind if you toss in a few squiggly fuzzy ones too…

But when I hear the word “Scholastic”, I’m thinking of rolling shelves upon shelves of primarily paperback, affordable, fabulous books. BOOKS! I’m thinking of my childhood - when I couldn’t WAIT for the book fair. The one with BOOKS.

I have noticed a pattern emerging since my oldest was in Kindergarten. What is that pattern, you ask? The dumbing down of choices offered by the Scholastic catalogues sent home with my kiddos from school. At first, it was Barney. Okay, so maybe Barney can teach numbers better than a book with non-cartoon character illustrations. I don’t necessarily agree, but for the sake of not being argumentative - fine. A tad annoying, but fine.

Thing is, it didn’t stop with Barney - then there was Clifford that freakishly big dog and Rug Rats (who, by they way, I don’t care for AT ALL), and Tickle Me Elmo, and a bit later, Sponge Bob and those square pants of his. I mean, why weren’t they Oblong pants? At least THAT would have been interesting.

I’m not saying that Scholastic no longer carries any good reads. I could have spent quite a deal more money than I did on colorful picture books for Kenny and even, Meredith.

There were a few seasonal books piled high atop a table of stuffed penguins, science sets, spy girl and beading kits, scrapbooking supplies, bobbets and gadgets galore.

But not a lot of choices for Meredith’s level - strong reader, but not quite into full chapter books yet.

And I know, I know … I sound so whiney, but this is SCHOLASTIC we’re talking about. I want books that I actually WANT my children to read. I want books that I actually WANT to read with my children. Where are the classics? Where are the innumerable quality paperbacks? Why in the stinkin’ heck do I have to forage through a mile of knick knacks and gizmos to get to any books. And then, to find most of those are straight off today’s cable television shows.

I kinda understand why Kenny’s biggest excitement was the race car sharpeners.

Gah - such a joiner am I

Susan invited me to join NoBloShoeMo: Thirty Days of Shoes.

I don’t even have 5 pairs of shoes, so I figured I’d just get creative with THESE shoes. THESE shoes that I love and paid $7.00 for at Walk*mart. These shoes that were hanging on an endcap next to some bright gold ones on one side and silver ones on another. These shoes that quite possibly my grandmother might wear if it weren’t for the bows. These shoes that have absolutely no heel support or arch support and will render me a spineless cripple after wearing them through the winter.

*breath*

Won’t you join the madness that is showing our shoes for 30 days with me? I mean WHY THE HECK NOT? I’m going to totally be bugging you everyday with photos of my cheap bargain blacks.

Still Growing

Oh, and just so you know, I haven’t cut it yet. And? There was no natural light this morning when I took this photo - so give me a break on the critique, m’kay?

I have an appoint with Whoorl on February 8th, I believe, for some hair advice. In the meantime I have invested in hair products and am officially a “girl” in the sense that I can no longer get ready in 10 minutes or less.

40 Responses to “No Scholars at Scholastic and Other Trivial Blabberings”

1. Cassie

   I totally agree with you on the Scholastic. And Books Are Fun, too. That’s what has invaded the schools here, more crap than Scholastic actually.
   So now? When the book fair comes a ‘rolling into town, my girls know, I’ll give them twice as much book $$ if we hit the used book store, rather than junk from the book fair. They fall for it every.single.time.

2. Serene and Not Herd

   I don’t know about Scholastic Book Fairs, but my wife has been stocking up on great young adult fiction (our favorite genre, being the only one with ANY hope for the future) at the Scholastic Book Warehouse sales AFTER the fair. There’s one in San Diego, and I think, one in Tucson too. Ask around, look them up online. You usually have to be a teacher, or have an invite from a teacher, but those aren’t too hard to come by.

3. Just Beachy

   We have the same problem with the bookfair and I’m not sure what the solution is? We visit the Library for general reading and the bookstore for keeper books. Usually, I just give a few dollars and they have to get a book and can get one item of crap if there is money left.

4. Tanya

   The stuff about Scholastic just makes me sad. As someone who is a voracious reader and grew up reading way above her grade level, I LOVED book ordering time! I would drool over the catalogue for days. Um yes, I am a bit of a nerd. But that is what makes me so sad to see that Scholastic isn’t living up to what they used to be.

   Also, your hair - LOVELY! It looks so cute on you! I KNEW you would look lovely with a bob haircut.

5. BOSSY

   Oooooh, shiny plastic things.

6. chocolatechic

   Hair…skin…gorgeous as always.

   Scholastic….never did that….I just took my kiddos to the library.

7. Carla

   Please don’t tell me that you are not wearing makeup in that picture! Your skin is amazing (eyes too by the way)! Not a creepy blog stalker but just wanted to say that I am jealous!!

8. Kuky

   I can remember book fairs when I was little. It was about the books, not that crap. And wow that is a lot of crap. What a shame. I didn’t know that about book fairs now.

9. erik

   I don’t really know what a book fair is or is supposed to be, we don’t have them over here. Kids go to the library. You can get six books at a time and it’s free for kids. When I was little we had the library bus because our village was to small for a real library… going into that bus was exciting, it was.

   But if a book fair serves a similar purpose it sounds like they’re doing a lame job. Rugrats? Sponge Bob? Those are cartoons. They belong on TV. Those are not books. Even if they make spinoff books that help sell the TV show or vice versa, they still aren’t books. They’re spinoffs.
   As a kid I already hated Tom and Jerry and Flintstones comics because I recognized them as fakes. Cartoons are never books.

   Anything that claims to be even slightly educational should not hold that kind of ‘books’ and just have real books. They don’t have to be literary classics. If a kid wants to read everything by Enid Blyton, why not? (they’ll probably get bored of it at some point anyway) But Rugrats and Sponge Bob, please no…

   It’s the same when you walk into a toy shop. Not that nice little toy shop with expensive wooden toys in a backstreet but a regular shopping mall toy shop. That can be horror. I remember trying to find a teddy bear there. Almost impossible if you don’t want a cartoon merchandising product. Most were Winnie the Poohs! (and not even modeled after Mr Shepard’s creation but the lame Disney one) If not they were from some other show if they weren’t from a show they were branded anyway and looked stupid - it was very hard to find a normal one.

   Let’s fight this, shall we?

10. OMSH

    Cassie - We are going to start doing that. We like to visit our local Hasting’s Bookstore and I think they may get more of our business.

    I like to support our teachers though - and they get free books dependent on how much we purchase through them.

    *sigh*

    Serene and not Herd - Now that is a good idea, but we aren’t in the booming metropolis and I don’t want to spend $75.00 in gas going to Houston to save $20.00 in book.

    There I go sounding whiney again.

    Just Beachy - Well, they sell what people BUY, so actually it probably is a poor reflection on the parents of the children purchasing. Eep!

    BOSSY - One word - GOOBER.

    chocolatechic - You are so sweet, thank ya love. *smooch*

    Carla - Oh I was! Well, not foundation. I wear transparent loose powder, because I HATE anything that resembles base. I’ve never been grown up enough to wear it. Ha ha! Actually, it feels much like smearing cake on my face.

    I do wear eyeliner and mascara and when I’m feeling really girly - EYESHADOW! Always lip gloss.

    And I know you didn’t want to hear all that, but there it is.

11. OMSH

    Kuky - The way you remember it is the way I remember it. I couldn’t wait for NEW BOOKS! Not tattoos, not Sponge Bob erasers. Not posters with Hannah Montana or the latest sports star. BOOKS.

12. TheAngelForever

    It really is sad how the good old book fairs from our childhood have changed. I know when I was in 5th grade we ran the book fair with our teacher to raise money for the big trip at the end of the year. At that point Scholastic was just getting into sending other things beside books. They would send a few small posters (fun sayings - not of sports figures or anything like that) and fun pop-a-point pencils and pens that were fun.

    Fast forward to the last three years when I was teaching. Like you captured in your photos, Scholastic has now incorporated a TON of garbage into their book fairs. I think I asked our librarian once if she had to have those things. She said they don’t, but they sell the most and have a nice profit.

    I know last year I had a hard time coming up with books to get for the kids I taught. Nothing good for 8th grade science and not a lot of high level 6th grade Language Arts. It wasn’t that Scholastic doesn’t have the great book, the variety was mainly all of the “in” books to sell.

    In May last year I was lucky enough to be visiting my brother (for his wedding) and there was a HUGE Scholastic warehouse sale. OMG! I was in heaven. You could go up and down the aisles and just grab books to buy at amazing prices. They had fabulous books for little kids, intermediate level, young adults, and even adults. My parents, son and husband went with us and loved it. Of course they also had in the warehouse all of the garbage you were referring to. My son had on a Clifford shirt and they were sweet and gave him a little Clifford shirt. I spent WAY too much money for my classroom, but things were so cheap. If you ever have a chance to go to these (especially the ones in May/June) go!

    Oh and just hope that Kenny does not get into the Captain Underpants books. I do not think I will let my little guy read those. When I was teaching 1st grade they were not allowed for the read aloud day. There was just an issue we had reading about Professor Poopypants.

13. Kristin

    Hi Heather, I too have been frustrated while at a Scholoastic Book Fair. I cannot stand all that extra stuff they sell, just to make more money. My son begs and pleads for a GBA cartridge when he should be looking at the chapter books. (I do not give in to the video game). I don’t really know what to do about it because our school makes money to buy books because parents buy that crap. It’s a sad “Win-Win” situation. :(

14. Susan

    I hate those book fairs. And I say that as a former teacher (of English, even!) and a writer and a rabid reader.

    Hate. Them.

    But you I love, and those shoes I adore.

15. A. J. Reams

    Our book fair is next week. We don’t put out the junk. Sometimes we’ll bring out the toys during conferences but other than that we only put out the pencils and little stuff like that. We’ve found that the toys and junk divert attention from the books so one year I asked if we HAD to put it out. The answer was no. It’s been better ever since.

16. Shannon

    I noticed this same thing earlier this week. My coworker’s 4 year old son brought in his Scholastic order forms when he came to visit me, and remembering how excited I used to get about them and narrowing it down to just two books I couldn’t live without, I started looking through his. It was really sad that they were all cable or movie characters. Even more sad was that he knew ALL of them, but when I pointed to a classic like Blueberries for Sal or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, he didn’t recognize them or care. He just kept shouting about Cars and telling me the entire plot line of the movie.

17. Steph

    Okay. So weird. I had nearly the same rant about OUR book fair. “BOOK fair? More like ‘As Seen on TV’ fair!” was heard fairly often for a day or so after we went.

    And I’m the sucker that’s managed to buy three copies of “Goodnight, Moon” so that each of my kids will have their own copy to read to their kids. Clearly, my taste isn’t all that discriminatory here.

18. MR. OMSH

    OMSH…a dose of reality here. Your grandmother WOULD have worn those plasticky (sp?) shoes. It’s okay if they render you a “spineless cripple”–just no hunchback in your elder years please.

    I can’t get over how much your hair has grown in such a short period of time. You look loverly.

    Bah-hum-bug on book fairs…Wait a minute, I want my money back!

19. OMSH

    erik - Ah, we still have libraries and use them, but there is this “love” of bringing a book home that is all yours.

    At least, that’s how it was for you.

    I’m with you on the cartoons bit though - yes, fine on TV. We don’t have it … so it work great for them to reside there *wink*. NOT in educational books. Or maybe they’ve changed. Maybe it isn’t about education.

    It is about GETTING KIDS TO JUST READ. I think they are willing to just sell them anything to get them to read - thus the dumbing down statement.

    I’m stepping off the soapbox, but I did NOT buy the Hannah Montana poster or book - just so you know. heh heh

    TheAngelForever - Emelie bought one of those two years ago or so with her own mone. Gracious - what a waste of $3.99.

    Serene and not Herd mentioned the warehouses. Man, that makes me drool. Like a big clearance warehouse of books?! That’s as close to utopia as it gets here on earth, right?

    Kristin - The REASON we support it is because of the teachers. I love our school - really, I do.

    The librarian is amazing and I know that some of the cheap toys and such are her way of allowing kids who do not have money to get books to get something.

    But still…

    I’d rather gather a fund to get them a book than a strawberry smelling frog eraser or a chocolate smelling highlighter.

    Susan - Why thank ya dah’lin. I think you’re pretty special too!

    A.J. Reams - It is good to know that there is choice involved in what gets put out. I really didn’t know that I’ll talk to our librarian.

    Shannon - “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom”! We have that one. I try very hard not to buy books FROM movies.

    Steph - “As Seen on TV” fair - well, yea … very good point. I think we have more than one “Goodnight, Moon” floating around as well.

20. Michelle

    We have the book fair at our school too. The girls make a list of what they want, and dutifuly bring it home to mama. I let them spend $5.00. Many times their lists will have 20.00 items on it, and I’m thinking to myself, “For $20.00, you better be bringing JK Rowling HOME, to read that book!”. It just seems to me that they gouge us enough - May I rant some more…okay, thanks. Get this: The girls bring home these magnets with this really cool abstract art on it that they drew at school…of COURSE I get attached to it b/c they drew it, and excitedly tell them, “Let’s put them on the fridge!”. I then proceed to read that the magnet costs $5.00, and we don’t get to keep the original 8.5 x 11 paper they drew their creations on before it became a magnet. Excuse me? What kind of a racket is this anyway? Grrrr!

    So I promptly took the magnets down, cursed the magnet guys, and put the magnets back in their envelopes…”That was a dirty trick.”, I declared. One of the twins heard me and said, “Should I tell my teacher you think they played a dirty trick on you?”……”Ugh, no don’t say that!” -Just as an aside, I kept the original pieces of art work, and sent back the magnets. There. Done. Thank you for your support. Oh my word, I need a blog.

21. Rocks In My Dryer

    I HATE the gimmicky, junky toys at book fairs, and it irks me beyond words. I feel like they’re trying to manipulate my kids and me. I refuse to buy that stuff, and I shoot the kids dirty looks before they even have a chance to ask.

22. Mary

    Yeah, this scholastic junk fair distresses me too. I teach K in a high risk schoolwhere the majority of students speak English as a second language, and it pains me to see children bring in 5 bucks to buy - you guessed it - the Barbie book, the Transformer book, the Care Bear books…but it is, sadly enough, an important fundraiser for our school. (and when I send the book fair brochures home during the school year, guess what they order? yep, the Barbie book, the Transformer book, the Care Bear book…(But, hey, come to think of it, I’m not pure either - I bought my daughter that junk too — :))

23. heartfull

    The catalogs the girls bring home do have some of the junk in them. We’ve never bought them. I didn’t think our Scholastic Book Fair was too bad. But then my girls know we won’t buy anything except books. And mom had to approve the book. The 2nd grader is past wanting anything other than good reading. The Kindy still would prefer a Strawberry Shortcake version of a classic. I stuck to my guns though and she ended up with “Wet Dog” which was very cute.

    And I got “Taste of Home’s Slow Cooker” cookbook. It is awesome! I have made quite a few recipes from it. And I know I could have gotten it a Amazon cheaper, but I was supporting the school at the same time.

    Our PTO sponsors our book fair and since I’m the treasurer, I can tell you we make quite a bit of money off of it. It is one of our biggest fund raisers. I don’t know if I see the harm in having extra stuff (you can always say no.) The parents who say yes probably would buy the junk anyways. Why not let this purchase support the school?

    But I’m wondering - are kids in some schools allowed to shop w/o their parents? As in, during school?

24. Angella

    I have not much to say. Except I do.

    You take amazing photos. Sigh.

    I wish we had a book fair. We only get the Scholasic catalogue.

    Susan invited me to NaBloShowMo too, but I may have to post EMily’s Shoes (or buy some more) to make 30 days.

    And finally…you are HAWT!

25. Gina

    We just had the book fair here last week and I go through the same thing. I just lay down the ground rules before going in, “NO BOOKS with: television characters, movie characters, video game characters. And we’re buying BOOKS and no other CRAP.” Scholastic does provide some of the truly great books in paperback so I don’t go broke stocking our library, but all the other crap just drives me nuts.

26. Aileen

    One of my biggest beefs with the books is that I’m play $15-$17 for a picture book that takes me less than a minute to read to my kids! At least give me something that lasts 2 minutes!

    I had joined the children’s book of the month club a while back thinking I would be safe from the toys, cartoon character books, and other assorted junk. No such luck. Cancelled soon after joining.

    I remember being so excited every time I got the scholastic order form, racing home to my mom, so we could pick out some books for me to buy. I doubt things will feel that magical once my little ones are in school.

27. Meg

    Here, here! Not only is next week “book” fair week at school (yeah, the same week as parent-teacher conferences) but also, those monthly book orders they bring home? Remember how exciting those were? Well now, I have to stress to the boys that IT’S CALLED A BOOK ORDER, not a software/necklace/crime-fighters kit order! I’m all, order as many BOOKS as you want. Just no STUFF that you can’t read. And no posters. GAAK!

    One thing’s cool though. I used to beg my parents for the latest Guinness book of world records each year. Hadda have it. Well, turns out my boys love ‘em too. Will read ‘em for hours. Gotta have each one each year though. And I’m all, why do you need a new one, it hasn’t changed that much, but then I’m all WAIT - I did the same thing and my mom acquiesced! Full circle, we’ve come.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bury my nose in my BOOK.

28. ashpags '06

    That’s so disappointing to hear about Scholastic. The book fair and catalog were some of my favorite things in elementary school. I used to bring the catalog home all marked up with the zillions of books I “needed” right away!

    And NoBloShoeMo? Sweet! How had I not already heard about it? Thanks! =)

29. coolbeans

    I like Scholastic Book Fairs. We were able to add some really great titles to our school library last year. In previous years at another school, we put new books in every classroom as well as the library and used a little extra dough to buy some of the cooler trinkets to give away at other PTA events.

    When I ran the fair at our school last year, we didn’t put out the toys and “stuff”. I don’t pull the television character books because I think 1) they’re still books and 2) parents can decide not to buy them and 3) they’re great for bargaining: “You can get Sponge Bob, but you have to get one other book that I suggest.”

    Just because Scholastic sends it doesn’t mean you have to unpack it.

30. andrea_frets

    Scholastic books brings me way way back to elementary school and sitting down at the dining room table to pick out the books I wanted. And I remember being ultra exciting about getting the holographic sticker that came along with my order.

    I’m hoping to get an appointment with Whoorl b/c I too am growing out my hair and I need HELP!

31. Jesse

    So I refreshed, refreshed, refreshed, until at last my patience was rewarded - there was me! Boy I sound totally full of myself, but I’m so tickled!

    So far I have lucked out and my children only want books from the book fair…although it always seems to be either Scooby Doo, Pokemon, or Star Wars that they want. At least they read what they buy, LOL!

32. june clever

    Our book fair was through Scholastic. All of your pictures looked very familiar because we had all of the crazy extra “junk” there, too. I was most amazed by the amount of books for parents there were. Sorry, but I’m not going to pay twice the amount at the crazy book fair for a book no matter how much I want to read it. And, at a school for 3-5th graders, there were waaaaaay too many books for preschoolers. A lot of space was wasted that could’ve been used for quality books that were age appropriate.

33. Cathy G

    I always have an issue at book fair time. So 4 years ago, I started making that time a Mom/ Daughter date. I take my girls to the book store to pick out 2 books and then over to the diner for hot chocolate and a big plate of french fries. It all started because my then kindergardener wanted a book that had a doll attatched and threw one heck of a fit because I refused to buy it. We haven’t been back since. I understand a company’s need to commercialize, but within an educational facility is pushing it a little too far (in my personal opinion).

34. Gingembre

    We didn’t have book fairs as a kid (at least, not that I recall), but in my book-loving family, Scholastic order forms were much anticipated, passed around marked up and bargained over. This would lead to the happened-every-time moment where the teacher would open the box, hand out books to several people in the class, and then pass the still-half-full box to me to take home. In fact if I recall correctly, it was this particular reading habit that my English teacher cited when he used me as an exaple of how studying for the Stuyvesant admission test was not something he could really help with, you had to be reading all along, like for FUN.

    OH this also totally reminds me of one of my favorite childhood stories, the time it was decided that for Xmas we as a family would have a $500 shopping spree at a store of our choice (my sister and me): clothing, toys or books. Of course we chose books, and between the four of us we completely filled a shopping cart! The cashier got to go on a break after us LOL. Best time EVER.

35. mom

    Thank you for the great post and images. I have been on scholastic’s case lately — check out my posts on this:

    I would love your suggestions for the “big meeting”

36. Farmgirl

    I was doing the EXACT same thing last month….volunteering at the book fair. Our school librarian does things a little different, she doesn’t even unpack half of the toys. I don’t know who helps her decide what to unpack but she’s pretty ruthless. We sold tons of those twisty rope eraser things. Those kids stand there with there last two quarters spending every last cent. One kid came up with monopoly money! He just broke my heart! I totally agree on the book selection, family channel in print. I bought myself a treat…The Quiltmakers Journey…..and a koosh ball pen ;)

37. Farmgirl

    One other thing our school does is a spring book fair that is buy one and get the second for a dollar. It doesn’t make the school as much money as the regular full price one. We look at it as a chance to stock up a bit for birthday gifts and a thank you for the money we’ve spent during the year on all those flyers.

38. Nicole

    I was so thoroughly disappointed when the book fair came around a couple weeks ago. It’s a relatively new phenom around here and my 4 y-o was so excited when we got there. Took him about 10 minutes to realize there were actually books there, too.

39. kristina

    I’m 25 and I remember the Scholastic book fair being just like this up in Canada all those years back…

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