The Scholastic Book Fair at Boissevain School last week was far more successful than Librarian Heather Heide could have imagined.

She was hoping to sell $4,000 in books and other items and sales reached $6,000.

“It was incredible, and I’ve been blown away by the support from, parents, students and people in the community coming out to buy books.”

The book fair hadn’t been held since 2019 and Heide believes that’s part of the reason for this year’s success. “There was a lot of excitement about that. Our teachers and the entire school are great at encouraging kids to read and that’s something I’m passionate about too.”

By reaching $6,000 in sales Heide will be allowed to purchase $3,000 in books for the school library.

“I need to fill out my step into chapter book area for kids graduating out of picture books and into chapter books. There’s always gaps I need to fill in for my non-fiction for all levels of readers whether it’s animals or about weather or history and that kind of thing. I’d like to fill in my high school section a bit more.”

After Grade 8 Heather Heide says the students don’t come into the library quite as much but she adds the E-L-A teachers have fantastic libraries in the classrooms as well.