Nasreen and her team in Karachi achieved 2000 units in fives days at the annual book fair:

• 25 Sales Consultants did 574 dems – average of 23 dems per SC!
• 18 SCs got 34 orders equivalent to 1948 units – average efficiency of 57 units!
• 349 referrals (from dems), 534 sales leads and 124 recruitment leads were also collected!

You can see from the photos here that the sales team looks passionate; stand is branded with all new ETL material – backdrop, banner stands, buntings, balloons, bookmarks etc.; they have their usual multi-media stations and kids corner. All of this in just four booths of 3×3 sq meters each! Please leave your comments or questions for Nasreen and team right here.

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Still trying to finish up your holiday shopping?

Well, you’re in luck! The parent-run Scholastic Book Fair beings today and will run through December 18th.

The book fair hours are 9am to 1pm and the books are on display in the school hallway on the first floor (turn right after the front office).

Parents are invited to come anytime during the day or to a special viewing tonight for a Parent’s Shopping Night from 6pm to 8pm!!!

See you there!

Hello Readers!

We have been invited to participate in a book fair, held at Triangle Grocery in Ceder Crest New Mexico, this afternoon. This will be our very first foray into the wide new world that follows the completion of a book Both of us are really excited. So if anyone reading this is interested in stopping by, we will be there between 3-4pm this afternoon. We will post more about this later.

Join the Goldfish Bowl writers’ circle as they launch their first anthology – packed full of stories and poems to take you on all manner of jaunty journeys!

Let the authors take you through the highs and lows of family life, through the foundations of friendships and into realms where things are fishier than they seem!

There will be plenty of information for anyone who’d like to join us, plus a chance to win a free copy of the anthology!

So keep an eye out for the fish at the fair and come join us in the bowl!

Saturday 19 December 2009

St Thomas’ Hall, Canterbury

10am – 4pm

Free entry!

Liberty Books presents the Exclusive Launch & Book Signing Event of the novel, I Know Who You Are! by Pakistani twin authors, Mariam and Fatima Masood, during the Karachi International Book Fair 2009. Be at the Karachi Expo Center, Activity Area, Hall 1 on Sunday, 13th December 2009 between 1:00 -1:45 pm in the afternoon.

Get a chance to meet the authors, click photographs, ask questions and win the merchandise of the book.

Let your family, friends and associates know as well.

Best wishes!

Today’s the day. The Hopkins West and North Jr. High Book Fair. Are we excited? Yes, we are. Are we ready? We think so:

• Smarties and Nerds (they’re holiday Nerds!)? Check.
• New outfits (me and Kyra)? Check.
• A sunny, if cold, day? Check.
• Camera? Check.
• Debs bookmarks and such? Check.

I think the only thing I can do now is smile a lot. Wish me luck! If I get any good pictures, I’ll post them here in the next few days.

Scholastic is currently or soon to be holding their semi-annual warehouse book sale event. These warehouse sales are meant to show Scholastic customers that they are appreciated. All books are half off except for hard backs and some are up to 80% off list price. Just click on your state below to see your times and locations!

The Scholastic Book Fair was a success!  We were able to purchase $500 worth of middle school titles for our readers.   My student “Crew” helped me choose the books.  They had wonderful insight and made sure we had books of all genres for all age groups.  The Crew made my job much easier.  They not only helped me choose the books, they put the fair up, took it down, wrote questions of the day for the $5 gift certificates, and were generally helpful to me and anyone who came to the fair.  Wonderful job Crew!  Thank you!

Roberta and I went to the book fair at Patio Brasil in Brasilia yesterday. I like going to the fair, it only happens once a year and normally its very good. This time they didn’t seem to have so much stuff, there seemed to be a few empty spaces where no stands were too. We will go again at the end of the week, maybe it’ll have more people selling by then. We managed to get a copy of the newest Dan Brown book, it’s been selling like hot cakes and we had problems getting a hold of a copy. They are only selling hard back versions of the book in English though, not really sure why this is. Every person we asked yesterday said they were only importing the hardback copies. Maybe it is cheaper to import? Usually we bring home three or four bags full of books but this time it was just a couple of books. There were quite a few bible selling stalls, for me this was a complete waste of space, they could have put some more book sellers in these spaces – someone like Cambridge or Oxford publications. A lot of the grammars books we already have copies of, I didn’t see any conversation material either, but then this didn’t matter so much as I already have a bookshelf full of this material. I think Roberta would have liked to see more stalls selling fiction books, we both love to read and usually load up on books at the fair. Next weekend, we will see if there are more things to look at and hopefully more deals as they start to wind the fair down.

The annual Pollard Book Fair (hosted by the PTC) is now in session. Held in Inner Space, the Book Fair is a wonderful time to browse through the latest books, and sift through the sale rack to see what gems might be hidden in the pile. Students come with their English teachers, and get a chance to look at what’s available and purchase items. If they didn’t bring money, they can come another day with a pass from their teacher.

Despite buying books this weekend for 40% off at Borders and Barnes & Nobles that caught my eye that I knew would be perfect for the library, I was still tempted to enter the doors of the Book Fair. I couldn’t resist buying several more books for the library. The Book Fair has a great selection.

So, stop by and shop. There is a separate adult section with books and cookbooks for gifts and/or home reading, so the Book Fair has something for everyone. The hours are Tuesday through Friday from 8:30-2:20 pm. The Book Fair will also be open on Wednesday evening during the Musical performances.

Shop and read, then read and shop at the Pollard Book Fair.

A large bulletin board hangs in the main office of Blue Ridge Elementary School. You can’t miss it. It bears dozens of labeled photographs of Blue Ridge teachers and staff, each one with a warm smile.

That board represents the community at Blue Ridge: warm. welcoming. friendly.

Last week, Blue Ridge hosted a book fair and parent-teacher conferences, which was the perfect opportunity to observe different members of the school’s community – teachers, parents and students – come together.

Blue Ridge’s conferences, like those at every Columbia public elementary and middle school, were held after school Thursday as well as Friday morning. Students did not attend classes Friday because of the conferences, according to the district’s Web site.

Although the book fair ran the whole week, the majority of sales occur during the conferences, said Rebecca Bevel-Smith, library media specialist at Blue Ridge. Bevel-Smith coordinates the book fair with the help of the Parent-Teacher Association.

She said the most popular books this year are the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.

“The kids are very excited to see all the new books at the fair and the new books in the library,” Bevel-Smith said.

Teachers also have the opportunity to get new books for their classrooms. The classroom with the most parents who visit and sign in at the book fair receives $50 to purchase books. A classroom from both preschool through second grade and third through fifth grade wins the competition.

“The teachers get very into it,” Bevel-Smith said. “I’ve seen teachers escort parents to the library to sign up.”

If parents weren’t with their children at the book fair, they were likely attending conferences with their child’s teacher.

Parents and teachers alike said their favorite part of Blue Ridge was the people that comprise the school community.

“I love the community of people and the people I work with,” third grade teacher Jessica Krueger said while waiting for a parent to arrive at her classroom for a conference.

JeorgeAnn Clark, a parent of a Title 1 preschooler at Blue Ridge, said there is a difference in Blue Ridge teachers compared with teachers from other schools.

“I like the teachers’ involvement with the parents and children,” Clark said. “More so than other schools.”

Blue Ridge seems like a close-knit community with the common goal of helping students learn in a positive environment.

“My No. 1 favorite thing about Blue Ridge is the students,” Bevel-Smith said, motioning toward a drawing one of the students made that names her “Best Librarian.”

“They make me smile and make me happy,” she said.

Sometimes when I’m really doubting people and I feel depressed to conclude that there are only certain types and categories of people, I start to think that there’s a lack of genuine intention out there.  Then I realize I’ve just closed my shutter lens.

In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to light to capture a permanent image of a scene.

When I open myself up to the unique possibilities of personalities that are impossible to categorize by any stretch of an empirical method, I find articles like this one. (A NYTimes article about people who are so particular about “type,” as in font type, that their vacations can be ruined when they see signs with “typographical gaffes”).  As if I’m opening my camera lens to allow more light to shine through, the refreshing feeling I get from hearing about these bizarre hobbies brightens my outlook and gives me a much more positive picture of what it means to live a life.

Another recent reminder of people’s unique hobbies was the  antiquarian book fair I went to over the weekend at Hynes Convention Center. A first edition copy of Mrs. Dalloway signed by Virginia Woolf.  An “unopened” copy of Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.  A letter to his publisher, handwritten and signed by Mark Twain.  (Each was more than $500.)  Talk about a treasure trove of words.

It was the most luxurious library I’d ever been in.  Despite the fact that I was one of the few people under 50 years old, I loved being in a cultural haven for quirky collectors.

And that’s when I feel most happy– when I remember that I know that it is perfectly acceptable to not be a “type.” And some other people know that too.

Typewriter Tip,Tip, Tipy mp3 by Asha Bhosle & Kisore Kumar

I always looked forward to the yearly book fair when I was a kid. My school hosted it in our library every fall and I could never go without buying a book or two and a bunch of bookmarks.

Of course, when I grew up, there were no more school book fairs, but a few years ago I started attending the Miami International Book Fair. It’s always a chance to find some new reads and great bargains, but this year’s fair was a bit disappointing. The selection was great, but the cultural events that were a not-to-be-missed part of the fair were well… missing.

The International stage and pavilions were replaced with discussion auditoriums, which is great, but there were already plenty of book discussion events to be had. The pavilions used to showcase arts and crafts, music, and all sorts of other interesting things from five countries selected for the year’s festival. Most of the entertainment provided was for children, which is great if you have kids, but there wasn’t much else for adults to do between browsing the stalls for books.

I still had a nice time, but I can’t say it was as fun as previous book fairs. I have to wonder if this is due to the financial difficulties that Miami-Dade College, the Fair’s host, has been experiencing?

I guess it was alright, thought I hope they are able to host the International pavilions again next year.

Regardless of the experience, I managed to bring home a nice little cache of books some of which I bought from the Friends of the Library group (can’t wait for their annual book sale, they had a great selection at their book fair stall).

My book stash:

An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

A Song for Summerby Eva Ibbotson

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

East of the Sun by Julia Gregson

and a hardcover copy of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding (one of my favorite re-readables)

Our Book Fair was a big success.

“Book Mania” is a good title for today because today was “all about books.” Here is how the day stacked up:

• At 6:45 this morning the Scholastic Book Fair arrived, as cart after cart and box after box of books for the upcoming Book Fair (Monday Nov. 16-Friday Nov. 20), were wheeled into Inner Space.

• I searched for, and prepared, a cart of books for Ms. Scribner’s students, who will be working with books about the Revolutionary War and the original 13 colonies for an upcoming project.

• I worked my way through a quarter of the Reference books, scanning them for the Inventory and restoring any books that had lost their MARC (online) records.

• I worked with 7-2 ELA teacher Mr. Lundberg’s classes for his “Free Read Friday.” His students came into the Media Center today to return, renew or borrow books. Once they had the book they needed, the students spread out throughout the library to read.

• Ms. Flanders (ELA 8-3) brought her students in this morning to do “quick” book borrowing and searching. Students whetted their appetites for titles in preparation for another round of booktalks and book borrowing that will take place in the Media Center next Tuesday.

• One of my parent volunteers worked very hard to input individual subject headings for each name listed in our collective biographies titles into our online catalog. A generic title like “Extraordinary Black Americans from Colonial to Contemporary Times” can now be searched online by the name of every person listed in the book. This is a time consuming process, and will be ongoing throughout the year, but it is also one which “opens” up the collective biographies in a more meaningful way.

• Plans are underway to do the same “expanding” of titles in the Short Story Collection, by listing the individual titles that are in each book. These titles will be placed into the “book summary” section of the Short Story. Thus, when searching for the title “Crazy Loco” by David Talbot Rice, the reader will see the titles of the 9 short stories that are contained in this collection of Mexican American kids growing up in the Rio Grande Valley.

So, as you can read, today was definitely a “Book Mania” Day. I’m sure many more of these type of days will come during the course of the year, as it’s only November.