Texas Mom Puts Together Own Book Fair to Replace Canceled Event in District

Texas mom Amber Fields took her time on Friday afternoon browsing book titles at the first-ever parent-organized book fair held in Grapevine. Fields' little child at home has not started reading yet, but she wants her kid to have the opportunity to explore the world through books.

She said she was an educator for a long time, and going to the book fair for her was always so fun. It has been a while since Fields browsed at a book fair. The former educator is one of the many customers attending this special event that a parent put together with the help of other volunteers.

According to Fields, she considers reading books a family affair. She said that she was picking up some stuff for her niece. She said she has a little one at home who is not in the district yet. The Community Scholastic Book Fair was held at the Grapevine Convention Center on Friday and Saturday. Parents and their kids can browse books by topic and age group.

Community Scholastic Book Fair a huge success

This is different from the book fair; however, that usually occurs in Grapevine due to the controversial book selection. That issue surfaced at school board meetings, with people questioning what books would be pulled from the shelves.

Book fair organizer Kristine Leathers said that nobody should take a book and not give her a choice to have that conversation with her own child. Leathers said Grapevine-Colleyville ISD sent her and other parents an email this past August postponing the district book fair.

The reason given was that the vendor could not provide a list of book titles before the event, according to the Star-Telegram. That was when Leathers got busy putting together her own book fair, organizing the event with the same vendor.

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Leathers not yet sure if she will organize a book fair again next year

She said that scholastic makes it super easy. She added that they just came in cards and pushed them out with books. This book fair was a two-day event and parent-organized. Leathers said the event was open to the public and available on Friday from noon to five and then on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Leathers noted that her main goal in organizing this book fair was to give parents and students reading options. She added that is something book fair-goers want, too as well.

Leathers told WFAA she still needed to decide if her inaugural book fair would happen again. She said that either way, she hopes it encourages students and parents to feel free to choose what books are best for reading. She added that it also applies to many of her book fair customers.

Fields agrees with that latter point, saying that she likes that there are options.

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