Each Book fair that we do is different in some respect to the ones done before. Yes, books do get sold but the ‘how’ is interesting. With each fair the approach to engaging the parents and children is different. We see parents and kids at both ends of the spectrum – the keen, enthusiastic ones and the disinterested ones. What we find over and over again is that if there is a culture of reading in the home and availability of varied reading material, the kids and the parents are more open to browsing, listening to recommendations and finally buying books. And then there are those whose whole body language says ‘don’t want anything to do with books ‘as they hurriedly walk past the book display area. Somewhere in between there are those who have to be convinced that story books will benefit their child by using the academic card. The idea that there is much more than only than the textbooks has still to be put out there to a larger part of the population.
Each time we see a child leave, clutching a book or two in hand, with a skip and a spring in his or her step, it reaffirms our mission. But when we see a tearful child being dragged away we are reminded that there is much work to be done in changing attitudes to books and reading.
