JACKSON — During the Switlik School’s Family Night festivities on Oct. 18, the school’s Book Fair Committee received national recognition and $1,000 in credit for books in recognition of its secondplace finish in the Scholastic Book Fairs Spring 2012 National Elementary School Contest.
“I think the most important goal of our book fair is really to hope that every child receives a new book,” committee co-chair Susan Guzman said. “That’s one of our goals.”
About 300 book fairs from around the nation participated in the contest, which was sponsored by Scholastic. Book fair organizers were required to submit a 500-word essay describing their book fair and how their committee generated interest for the book fair among pupils.
The Switlik School book fair had a luau theme and ran for several days in late February and early March. News of the school’s achievement in the contest came just as a fall book fair was getting under way earlier this month.
Along with co-chairs Kandice Antenucci and Elizabeth Hughes, Guzman said the book fairs at the Switlik School have always been a project that almost everyone gets involved in. That includes parents, teachers and staff members.
At one event, teachers and staff members wrote and performed a parody of “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO called “Reading Rock Anthem.”
“It was great. One teacher was dancing around with a big cardboard box on their head like in the original song’s music video,” Guzman said. “It was just a fun thing. They are trying to promote reading in many ways.”
The $1,000 worth of Scholastic Dollars the school received as its prize on Oct. 18 has been used to purchase books for a reading program at the school called the 100 Books Challenge.
According to Guzman, the 100 Books Challenge is a reading program in which children can select books from the classroom to take home. The children write down the amount of minutes they read each month.
“The thing that is so great about [our book fairs] is that it is such a good collaborative effort with everyone at Switlik,” Guzman said. “There is a lot of excitement going on during those couple of weeks at school. I know it sounds so corny, but reading can take you to better places.”