Scholastic book fair held at Geneseo, brings nostalgia to students
The SUNY Geneseo Student Council for Exceptional Children will host a Scholastic Book Fair with the School of Education beginning Feb. 23 at Geneseo. The event will take place within the Kinetic Gallery of the MacVittie Union and will run through Mar. 4. Daily hours can be found on the Geneseo events calendar.
According to the Geneseo website, the book fair will feature children’s and young adult books from a range of reading levels and is aimed at early education majors looking to grow their collections for future students, as well as a fun way for Geneseo students to remember the children’s books they grew up with.
According to the Scholastic website, “[book] fairs help fuel a love of reading with the characters students adore and high-quality books,” and the college hopes that education majors can begin thinking about their own book collections and how they can instill the same love of reading in their future students.
More so than the books, Geneseo students remember the experience of going to Scholastic Book Fairs as children. Lauren MacTaggart, a sophomore neuroscience major, recalled her experience going to book fairs in elementary school.
“I remember getting the catalogues of books a week before the fair and circling all the books I wanted before I went. I never got the actual books—I’d get little birthday presents for my family instead,” she said. “My mom would give me money and I’d buy a pen that said ‘number one brother’ on it instead of a book.”
Sophomore early childhood education major Alison Barry remembered her elementary school teachers being excited to take their students to the fairs every year.
“[All the teachers] were excited about the book fairs. We had it in our library every year and we’d go as a class at some point during the day. One of my teachers [bought books for students], so obviously she was my favorite,” Barry said.
Barry admitted that she was most interested in the toys that came with or could be bought alongside books.
"There was a calculator that smells like chocolate, and there was a plastic finger pointer and peach lip gloss that came with my fairy book. I don’t remember the title, but it was about a fairy. I never read it. I just wanted the lip gloss,” she said.
Barry shared her hopes for SUNY Geneseo’s Scholastic Book fair. “[The book fair] is like, you’re going to read Magic Tree House. I’m kind of hoping, personally, that they have some not-adult books, but important age-appropriate books.”
The fair will be held at different times between Friday, Feb. 25 and Friday, Mar. 4.