Organizing a Young Author Fair

Looking for the perfect way to promote literacy and writing throughout your district? A young author fair is often the ideal showcase that can help encourage students, parents, and teachers alike toward a culture of literacy that prizes student creativity. Not even sure where to begin in organizing an event of this size? This quick guide can help.

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Start Planning Early: You simply cannot create an effective Fair overnight. If you're interested in hosting a Young Author Fair, the single best thing you can do is begin planning before the school year ever starts, depending on the date you wish to host the fair. Students will not only need to have time to create their own texts, but you'll also need quite a bit of time for event planning. Don't undertake this task on your own. You're going to want a committee of individuals throughout the district to help with the tasks ahead of you.

There are several different ways to lay out a Young Author Fair. While almost all of them have a book display for the works of all the young authors in the district, several also include other components. What you include in your fair will be completely up to you. Options here include inviting several published children's authors to speak with students, having a coffee-house-style reading from students from their books, and even having great literacy events at the fair. Book Bingo is a popular choice, as are other events like a book-based trivia contest, an art contest based around images and sculptures from books students have read, and even a literacy Olympics where events could include book stacking, alphabetizing, and other contests involving words or books.

The Big Day: Handling the Fair doesn't have to be completely overwhelming. You'll want to make sure you have lots of volunteers, both from the district and from your local PTA or PTO to ensure there are workers or helpers for every part of the day. If you plan to host children's authors, make certain you have someone to see to all of their travel arrangements. If you're planning to have outdoor events, ensure there are other events or at least plans in place in the event of poor weather.

You'll also want to make certain your student authors have their displays ready as well. The book display is the key part of any Young Author Fair, and most would love nothing more than to have a published copy of their book on the table. You may even want to offer those who come a way to buy the student books. That's not as difficult as it may seem. Bookemon's new Young Author Press provides the perfect outlet on that front. For just $99, students can have a copy of their book. It's also assigned a unique ISBN number, searchable through Amazon.com and other channels, and even promoted online and through press releases. It's the one way your students can feel like actual authors, while simultaneously making copies available for purchase by parents, teachers, and many others.

Young Author Fairs are a great way to promote literacy in your district, and while they may take quite a bit of planning on your part, they are a wonderful chance for all of the authors in your district to gain some measure of recognition.