One of my favorite things about our book fairs is seeing the theme come to life each year. I love discovering how the theme connects to the books, the decorations, the activities, and all of the little details that make the entire book fair experience feel so special for our readers and families.
This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Megan Gray, Brand & Creative Operations Leader at Literati. This was such a special conversation for me because I got to learn more about the amazing story behind how Megan and her team bring Literati Book Fairs to life.
And I have to say…Megan has a dream job! Getting to imagine, create, and bring the magic of a book fair to life for kids and families is pretty incredible. I loved hearing about the creativity, thought, and collaboration that go into each theme and every book fair experience.
There is so much more behind our book fairs than what we see when the boxes arrive and we begin setting everything up and I can't wait to share a little of that magic with you!
It is so wonderful to connect with you today, Megan. To kick off our conversation, I’d love to know what you did before and how this led to your current role at Literati.
As a designer and creative director, it’s always been important to me to do mission-aligned work and leave things better than I found them. Literati’s mission is really meaningful to me because I think that all kids deserve access to the stories that connect us.
Take us behind the scenes! When we walk into a Literati Book Fair and see the finished theme, displays, books, and artwork, what has happened behind the scenes to get from the very first idea to the finished fair?
The best part is that every theme starts with feedback from the kids! We send out classroom surveys to get a sense of ideas they find most exciting—from dinosaurs to superheroes to camping. From there, we select an illustrator whose style we think would be a good fit for the concept. We’ve been really fortunate to work with such brilliant, talented illustrators. I think that level of commitment to working with artists really sets us apart and makes our book fairs feel like mini art installations. We develop a number of scenes and stories within the theme that we think will help make things fun and inspiring for kids.
How do you discover what kids want? What role do student surveys, teacher wish lists, librarian feedback, and those wonderfully unexpected student write-ins play in shaping a book fair?
Our creative team has a really great sense of play and imagination, and it’s fun to come up with things that we loved as kids! Dinosaurs, superheroes, and pirates are timeless, right?
We put a few ideas in a survey along with some inspiring visuals and send them to teachers to get their kids’ input. We love the write-in comments.
In our most recent survey, one theme concept had a comment that said, “fun, I like this one the best.” That happens to be the theme we chose for Fall 2027 (no spoilers!) We really value librarian feedback and customer survey responses to help us constantly improve.
How does a theme come to life? Can you walk us through the journey from an initial idea and mood board to sketches, artwork, and ultimately the finished theme that schools receive?
Our lead designer Kat Yao works with an illustrator to sketch out the scenes that eventually become the signs on the top of the book cases. It starts as a rough sketch and then the characters and details get refined, after which we work through color and texture until it’s just right. Children’s book illustrator Martin Stanev was a clear choice for our Fall 2026 Campfire Magic theme, since he has a lot of that nostalgic, outdoor, Americana type of work in his book. He was great to work with, from sketch to finished product. (time lapse video).
What makes Literati's creative process unique? There is so much talent, craft, and care behind the artwork and design. Why is the commitment to human creativity and the arts so important to Literati?
We’re a team of writers, educators, artists, engineers, data scientists, and avid readers ourselves. Everyone here believes deeply in the mission—to ignite a love of learning and a love of life. We hear all the time that there’s a literacy crisis, but more specifically, we know that reading for pleasure is on the decline. We really want to make reading fun for kids, and we believe that building magical worlds and increasing access to high-quality books and new discoveries is a huge unlock. Kids deserve beautiful, creative experiences to inspire them. Book fairs are a core memory for most of us, and we feel so lucky to be part of designing the modern book fair for kids today.
You had told me what sets Literati apart from others is the commitment to the arts. I would love for the readers to know more about this.
How do you design for everyone? When you're creating a theme for K–8 students, how do you make sure it is inclusive, welcoming, and exciting for all kinds of readers?
This is where the creativity comes in! A video game theme might appeal to middle-grade Minecrafters, for example, but we might risk losing interest from our younger kids. Story Arcade was a great solution that had some 8-bit nostalgia for parents and older kids, fun characters and scenes for younger kids, and gamified necessities like gift cards with cheat codes for everyone. We loved seeing what book fair coordinators did with the decorations, too! What’s interesting, I think, is that it’s an unexpected theme for a book fair, and a way to draw more kids in to experience that book fair magic!
Literacy is always at the heart of the experience. How do you make sure a colorful, playful theme doesn't just look amazing but actually creates energy and excitement around books and reading?
We really think about the flexibility and extensibility of a theme. How much appeal will it have to a diverse group of students? How easy will it be to decorate? How will we tie it to reading? There are so many factors to what makes it exciting for everyone, and we put a lot of thought into it.
Tell us about the unexpected! What makes a theme like Campfire Magic, Story Arcade, or Go for the Gold work—and why is it sometimes powerful to take a book fair in a direction families aren't expecting?
I know I’ve said it a few times, but it’s really important to us to make reading fun, and part of that is keeping it fresh each season with moments of surprise and delight. I don’t think you’d expect to see a video game theme at a book fair, but it might draw in a reluctant reader. I also think it’s a celebration of world-building, creativity, and inclusivity to show reading is for everyone and everywhere..
Something I also consider a lot is the importance of trust in our relationships with parents, kids, and schools. Trust is a big factor—parents and kids rely on us to pick the best books, and schools rely on us to make this a successful fair and a great experience for everyone. I think it goes a long way to build that trust when people see how much care, creativity, and craft we put into every detail. We don’t cut corners in creativity, and the same is true for every other aspect of our book fairs.
How much do you think about the people putting the fair together? When designing a theme, how do you balance the big, exciting creative vision with practical ideas that make it easy for librarians and book fair coordinators to bring the theme to life?
We really believe we’re the easy book fair with features like our quick set up and auto-replenishment, so we work to thread that ease through everything we provide. We have marketing kits, customizable social media graphics, a Pinterest board for decoration inspiration, and tons of resources in OpenBook to support them in hosting a successful fair.. We’re so inspired by the people who help put fairs together that we kicked off our first annual Book Fair Awards last spring to honor and recognize them—and we’re doing it again in February! One of my favorite awards is the Magic Makers, celebrating the best-decorated fairs. We truly believe that’s what they are!
By the way, you can nominate a school here!
Who are the people behind the creativity? Can you tell us about the Literati Creative Team and how educators, librarians, designers, artists, and other team members collaborate to create each fair?
Creative Team Credits:
Associate Creative Director, Copy — Alexis Kaegi
Lead Designer — Kat Yao
Copywriter — Conor LaRocque
Print Production Specialist — Joey Yardley
Illustrators — new each season!
I’m so honored to lead such a great creative team that makes these fairs so magical. The level of creativity and care they put into every detail is extraordinary to me.
Here’s just one example we’re really proud of—one of our Sneak Peek Video Sizzle Reels.
In addition, because it really takes a village, we have former educators on our own team, a book fair advisory council of librarians helping steer and inform our decisions, data scientists tracking what’s working for people, engineers building out features our customers request, a book curator traveling internationally to discover the best new titles and hidden gems, a world-class customer support team, and the hard-working people on our operations team who get book fairs to schools. Everyone here is making the magic happen.
You're always thinking ahead. How far in advance does Literati begin developing themes, and what does the process look like when you're already dreaming about a future fall season while schools are experiencing the current one?
As Fall 2026 fairs kick off in schools, we are hard at work producing Spring 2027 creative, and have just finalized the theme and first illustration for Fall 2027. As a small team, we produce a ton of printed materials from case signage to guidebooks each season, so we work pretty far ahead to keep things running smoothly.
What are you seeing in books and literacy right now? As you look toward upcoming fall fairs, what trends, topics, or types of books are you especially excited about sharing with kids?
Creatively speaking, I’m enjoying the trend toward more hand-drawn illustrations and that imperfect, human aesthetic as a response to the influx of generative AI work out there. I read a NYT op-ed by Peter Schmidt this week, which discussed that as the informational function of books is declining, the experiential function is increasing. He said, “In other words, the future of reading is a party.” I think for people in the business of creating magical experiences and endeavoring to make reading fun, this is excellent news.
And finally, what is the heart of it all? When a child walks into a Literati Book Fair and their eyes light up, what do you hope they feel—and what do you hope they take away from that experience as a reader?
More than anything, I hope they see themselves in the fair. The books we carefully curate for discovery, the character illustrations, the messages. We hope it inspires and excites them to explore the stories that call them. Reading opens doors to new worlds, and we are so truly honored to be an early, formative part of that journey.
To wrap things up, what is one hidden gem or unique project you're personally thrilled to bring to schools in upcoming fairs?
As a team, we’re so excited to see the Campfire Magic theme in schools this fall. We’ve been working on it for months, and it’s one of our favorites yet. There’s something special about the coziness of reading in a tent under a lantern glow, or hearing stories by the campfire under the stars. The artwork is beautiful, and we hope it becomes a core memory for the kids who find their favorite new book at the fair.
I couldn't agree more! When I open our Marketing Must-Have Kit for our upcoming fair this fall, I was so excited to see all of the amazing things you and your team created for this seasons book fair.
The artwork is beautiful! Our readers and families will love walking into our new library with all of the Campfire Magic around us for this special event.
Thank you, Megan for talking to me today and taking all of us behind the scenes of making Literati Book Fairs the best book fairs around!
