Scholastic Releases Book Fair Modifications for Spring 2024

Scholastic Book Fairs has announced its plans for the Spring 2024 fairs, which includes the previously segregated titles from the Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice add-on bookcase being available throughout the fair.

Following outrage and condemnation after the separation of diverse books into an opt-in bookcase for its Fall 2023 Scholastic Books Fairs, the company has changed course and released its plans for those titles and its fairs for the rest of the school year.
 
"From our experience in the fall, we have learned that separating out titles or highlighting titles that might make teachers and librarians vulnerable to serious legal and professional consequences is not the answer," the Scholastic press release read. "As announced previously, we are discontinuing the supplemental Celebrating Voices Collection that was offered in our fall U.S. elementary school fairs. Spring ’24 Scholastic Book Fairs will:
 
  • include all of the books from the fall Celebrating Voices Collection throughout the fair, joining a number of new titles with a wide array of representation
  • feature an enhanced, online Book Fair preview with industry standard information and search functionality similar to any other reputable online sites, so schools and Book Fair hosts can explore the books in advance of their fair, and
  • deliver all books in the fair to schools, which will be able to make their own local merchandising decisions, as they have always done, just like any bookstore or library."
[READ: My Book Was Segregated by Scholastic Until It Wasn’t. Will Anything Change? | Opinion]

For the fall fairs, Scholastic Book Fairs introduced Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice, a new set of books, framed by the company as an “add-on” that librarians could choose to stock in their book fair—or decline.

The set of approximately 60 titles includes books on Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Rep. John Lewis, and Ruby Bridges, as well as The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal, She Persisted by Chelsea Clinton, and I Color Myself Different by Colin Kaepernick. Scholastic claimed these books might put some educators or volunteers in danger of breaking local laws and that the company wanted to help avoid that possibilityas the company noted again in its press release announcing the changes for spring that were forced by public pressure. After authors and educators spoke out against the set-up and segregation of titles, Scholastic officials apologized and discontinued the add-on set.

[WATCH: Books on Film: Scholastic Bookfairs on The Daily Show | 100 Scope Notes]

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