As members of both P.E. classes and Upper School town meetings would know, Hewitt’s annual Book Fair returned to the Gym to promote both a love of reading and an enthusiasm for Hewitt just in time for the holiday season.
Such an appealing event would not have been possible without the dedication of the Parents Association, which worked diligently to organize book shipments with BookSmart. According to co-chair Ms. Elizabeth Benintendi, this literary vendor supplied the majority of the exciting titles on display. She mentioned the authors who visited the lower school in order to bring awareness to some of the books offered this year; in addition, Ms. Benintendi highlighted the successful, adults-only cocktail party held the night before the book fair’s opening.
“I thought it was really nice. It was really festive, and many adults did their holiday shopping. It was a really fun way to
kick off the book fair. Since 7:30 this morning, there’s been a flow of classes coming in and out all day.” Indeed, as we spoke, Ms. Benintendi helped a number of customers pay for their items, which included the insanely popular sixth installment of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Andrea Holland, another co-chair, described how the middle schoolers devoured this particular title on the second day of the event.
“Ten [copies] were gone by this morning. We brought up another big box of these books, and now we’re down to four copies. It’s like feeding pigeons,” Ms. Holland joked.
Prices didn’t seem to be an issue for most of the Hewitt community – as I interviewed Ms. Benintendi, for example, most parents were very willing to pay for a number of different selections for their children. The Parents Association has to sell books at retail value because of Hewitt’s fundraising efforts and business agreement with BookSmart. However, many students and faculty agreed that discounts would make the book fair even more attractive; some suggested a used book section, which would definitely please those of us who feel guilty for spending so much money on books that we know will soon begin to collect dust.
“This year’s book fair had the best selections yet,” commented Ms. Caitlin Kilts, science teacher and avid reader. From November 30 to December 1, 2011, selections ranging from Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice to dazzling Hewitt charm bracelets were enough to satisfy the thoughtful and trendy alike.
Although it seemed as if the book fair could satisfy everyone’s interests on the surface, what did the rest of the Hewitt community think about its offerings? Hannah Ricotta ’15 commented on the scarcity of different genres. To her, “This year’s book fair was a little different from previous years because there weren’t many books to choose from.”
Marlena Rubenstein ’14 also had similar views, wishing for “a young adult section that wasn’t occupied by the Twilight saga and other paranormal romance novels.” She believes there should have been a more developed adults’ section, considering the Gym it occupies is located in the Upper School along with the Middle School. Interestingly enough, no one was particularly bothered by the book fair’s location. Many students enjoyed the break in their regular P.E. classes and liked participating in a different elective that week.
Like Marlena, almost everyone with whom I spoke commented on the lack of selections in the adult section. Julia Bronheim ’13 would have been more excited to visit the book fair if there were more books available for her age group, as opposed to the majority of books that were geared toward lower school students.
Teachers did not seem to mind the book fair’s focus on the community’s youngest members. “It served the population it was meant to serve,” said Ms. Kilts. This makes sense, as the classes assigned to visit the book fair throughout the day were mostly from the Lower School, along with 4th through 6th grade classes in the Middle School.
Dr. Maureen Burgess was so swamped with work from her 10th grade and AP English classes, along with her commitment to the Strategic Planning initiative, that she unfortunately could not attend this year’s book fair. However, she expressed her intense approval of the book fair’s goals, saying that she is “very happy that the Parents Association wants to support our school with the love of reading.”
“Do we even have a book fair?” asked a surprised Dr. Jonathan Sabol as he looked up from his notes for Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Like Dr. Burgess, Dr. Sabol was quite busy with his 9th and 11th grade classes. Lamenting, he stated he would have definitely attended the book fair if he had could have found the time.
Despite the lack of genre choices described by many of the students, the diversity of the Hewitt merchandise stared us right in the
face with its brown and blue eyes. Dressed in plaid Lower School frocks, dolls were positioned in the middle of many of the children’s tables. Located on the actual merchandise table was an array of cute headbands sporting more plaid and some navy, traditional Hewitt sweatshirts and backpacks, and an endearing miniature stuffed animal of our beloved canine friend, Maggie. Not surprisingly, mini Maggie proved to be the most popular piece of Hewitt merchandise, selling out almost just as quickly if not quicker than the Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever.
To see a wider array of books appealing to Upper School students for next year, perhaps the voracious readers of the Upper School could create a list of preferred genres or authors so that the Parents’ Association could become more aware of specific interests. Book fairs represent a community’s socio-intellectual culture, which is quite rich and varied here at Hewitt due to all the different people that compose this close community. Perhaps next year, by recognizing these intellectual differences, the community could be even more united in its love of reading!