All about a March Book Fair

All about a March Book Fair…. ! The best advice I ever got was that, knowledge is power and to keep reading.     -David Bailey What else could be more gratifying than working out a Book Fair from concept to commissioning? Working a month in advance with a lean library staff structure, with a philosophy of do every thing by yourself was nothing less than a miracle when it went off smoothly. Great to work with a small team backed up by the Library Advisory Team and Student volunteers. Thanking kids and teachers  before they do any thing. Great indeed, it leaves me with thoughts to dream bigger dreams about Books and Fairs and Events far larger in magnitude and scope. Occasion was Open/Report Day of Shishuvan School. What emerged was a small but busy, short but sweet book fair event where in students were all out in rating it as excellent. Kids love books, specially when they are too many and parents love it when kids are into books. Their gratification / smiles …. Comparison. Surprisingly cool March Breeze, brought smiles on the faces of Booksellers and Distributors as books etc got sold on and on. The participating vendors / service providers included Katie Bagli a nature author, navneeth an NGO, young explorer (magazine), a couple of Voluntary organizations and some one stacked few educational toys. The light instrumental music which was on and off , brought occasional tender moments to the people busy in browsing the titles. The Report / Open day is itself a celebration for kids and this bonus of being with books is an additional wonderland. God is great, kids and parents still have the same love for the print version of  books. I think and wish the enthu and craze for print books will continue for many more millenniums. The best part was, 34% of those who gave feedback rated their experience in Fair as Good and 40 % as Excellent. The following were some of the suggestions offered  to be taken care in the forthcoming book fairs : ·        Book Fair to be open for 2 to 3 days, ·        Stalls must have variety of books. Repetitions to be avoided. ·        Preferred subject areas : Space, Earth, India, Harry Potter, 3D Books, Dinosaurs, Bollywood stories, Fiction, Word Search, Cars, Children’s Books, Sports and Cricket, , Computers / IT. Payment by Credit / Debit Cards to be facilitated. ·        There should be more of Activity Counters. ·        More space required. The organizers (me and my team), closed the show with a  firm determination to enhance  the scope of the Fair magnanimously. One of the resolutions was to treat Book Fair as one of the important components and mile stones of the Schools Annual Reading Programme.