Sunroom Desk

While entertainment spinoffs and trinkets were displayed at the Glendale elementary school book fair I attended this week, I was pleased with the far higher percentage of quality offerings. The Scholastic Book Fair offered a range of good books for every elementary grade, and a few good books for parents as well. To the committee in charge, thank you!

A few years ago, when a different vendor supplied book fair items, many of them were frankly junk. Children’s entertainment spinoffs, poorly-conceived stories built around the latest kids’ toy fad (Pokemon, etc.), and a prominent display of the latest base toilet-humor books (Captain Underpants) with no redeeming value.

There are parents who say they’ll use books like these just to get their children to read. In fact, I was acquainted with one. Denise Hamilton is a noted mystery writer and former LA Times reporter who lives in the Glendale/Burbank area. Her 2006 LA Times column on this subject is still online.

My own opinion is that such purchases won’t serve parents’ long-term goals. Consider a child who is underweight, weak, and a very fussy eater. Finally, the parents find something the child will eat every time it is served: cotton candy! “At least s(he) is eating!” they sigh in relief. If their only goal is to get the child to eat, they have succeeded. Still, do they really think eating cotton candy will help their child gain strength, build up muscle, or develop good table manners?

Among the more commercial and less literary offerings at the book fair yesterday were a Goosebumps CD, a set of SpongeBob erasers, a High School Musical cookbook (with a recipe for Bolton Burgers), and Cheat Code (which looked like a book but was actually a table of codes that would override computer game functions – apparently this volume was very popular with boys).

Looking beyond the checkout area temptations, however, I saw a huge selection of biographies, science books, mysteries, suspense stories, stories on struggling against adversity (or cliques), and histories. The Scholastic Book Fair offered a wide and excellent selection of books for kids. To future committees at other schools: picking the right vendor makes a difference!