News — ScholasticBookFair

Let Me Ruin Your Childhood: The Inequality of School Book Fair

Let Me Ruin Your Childhood: The Inequality of School Book Fair

s Ah, the Scholastic Book Fair. The smell of new books and erasers. The serious business of circling your chosen books in the flyers. The hum of excitement in a crowd of kids navigating the tables stacked with books and other shiny goodies. They are the epitome of the nostalgic bookish childhood experience. Unfortunately, though, that’s not everyone’s memories of the book fair. Underneath the glossy flyer pages and the nostalgia, school book fairs are also a site of inequality. For poor kids and underfunded schools, those book fairs look very different — and what’s on display has often been...