I am so excited to be planning our upcoming Literati Book Fair. Our book fairs are such special events for all readers. One of the things I love most about them is how they bring our community together to celebrate reading while supporting our students, families, library, and classrooms.
While I was talking with our Literati representative, Kelli, this week, she shared a new case study from the Literati blog about how St. Anne Catholic School doubled their book fair sales through the strategic use of online wish lists during their Literati Book Fair
You can read the case study here. It's an incredible story.
It also made me think about the goals we have for our upcoming book fair. I started wondering:
What if one simple strategy could double the impact of our school book fair?
That’s exactly what happened at St. Anne Catholic School. During their recent Literati Book Fair, what began as a projected $9,000 event grew to more than $20,000 in book sales, with nearly half of those purchases coming from teacher wish list donations.
As a teacher librarian, I see so much potential in these ideas. With thoughtful planning, tools like online wish lists, and strong community support, a book fair can become more than just a week-long event—it can become a community-wide literacy campaign that supports teachers, empowers families, and puts more books directly into students’ hands.
Here are a few of the strategies from St. Anne's book fair that any school can adopt.
1. Launch Teacher Wish Lists Early
Encourage teachers to build their digital wish lists as soon as the online fair opens. Share those lists through newsletters, social media, and school communications so families have plenty of time to donate books to classrooms.
2. Promote Wish Lists Everywhere
Create simple displays with QR codes that link directly to your online fair page and teacher wish lists. Place them in the library, front office, and around event spaces so families can easily scan and give.
3. Pair Your Fair With School Events
Schedule your Literati Book Fair alongside events that already bring families to campus—like Grandparents Day, concerts, conferences, or community celebrations—to naturally increase traffic and excitement.
4. Invite Families to Champion the Fair
Parent and family volunteers and organizations can help promote the fair, organize volunteers, and spread the word throughout the community. Their enthusiasm often drives participation.
5. Focus on Book Impact
Frame the fair as a way to put more books into classrooms and students’ hands, not just raise money. When families know they are helping build classroom libraries, they are eager to participate.
At the heart of every successful book fair is something bigger than sales totals or checkout lines. It’s a community coming together around the belief that books matter.
When schools embrace tools like teacher wish lists, they open the door for families, grandparents, and community members to become part of that story. With just a few clicks, supporters can place books directly into classrooms, helping teachers build collections that inspire curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love of reading.
St. Anne’s story shows what’s possible when a school combines thoughtful planning, strong parent leadership, and a shared commitment to getting great books into students’ hands. Their results were impressive—but the real success will be seen every day as those books are read, shared, and loved in classrooms.
And that’s the true magic of a book fair.
Not just the week of excitement, but the lasting impact of the stories that continue long after the fair is over.
You can learn all about how to host a Literati Book Fair and more about online wish lists here.
