The Bookshelf

Elementary School Book Fair: Scholastic Disappoints

The Scholastic book fair is once again coming to our school next week. It will be nice to get some new books on the shelf. However, I was a little disappointed when the Scholastic flyer arrived in my son’s folder. I sat there at the table checking out all the titles of the books they were promoting and was saddened. Seriously, Scholastic you can do better than this.

Stay Alive #1 Crash? Cover complete with an airplane plummeting into the ocean.  This is elementary school!! Good luck to the parents that are trying to get their kids on a plane for their next Disney vacation!

stay alive

Zombie Goldfish, you can’t do better than that? That’s just disgusting.

zombie fish zombie goldfish

What happen to books with meaning? Books that make you laugh and teach you a good life lesson? Well, I guess “staying alive” would be teaching a lesson, but this is elementary school. Am I being naive to think that kids should be wanting to read things a little more wholesome? Is it just me that finds these titles a bit inappropriate for K-4?

13 thoughts on “Elementary School Book Fair: Scholastic Disappoints

  1. Um. What? Those are…weird at best. How odd! I think kids want to read something a bit better than that! I used to love the Scholastic book orders when I was a kid!

  2. I loved Scholastic book fairs as a kid and still do for my preschool daughter. But those books seem questionable indeed! I’m hoping that’s not what happens as kids get older. It’s gonna make more work for us moms trying to find books!

  3. You are not being naive at all! Those titles are horrific! I, too, have been disappointed with Scholastic lately, and another mom friend of mine said she never orders from them. We picked a couple of books blind at the start of the year and they are now buried on the back of the shelf.

    Your sample books were hilarious! Made me laugh out loud. My 5-year-old daughter brought home a book from her library last October, and it was a mix of the ones you shared, set in a graveyard with a spirit walking around killing people! Only it was drawn all dark and realistic. I was appalled. I can’t imagine the librarian actually read that book before approving it.

    What are some of your favorite kids’ books?

    1. My kids still enjoy my old Berenstain Bear books. Anything Mo Willems. When Dinosaurs Came with Everything by Elise Broach is a fun one. Check out my bookshelf page…all their favorites are there.

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