Teachers: Tell Scholastic That Book Clubs Are For Books

If you are not a teacher, please click here to tell Scholastic to return to selling books – and only books – through their in-school book clubs or click here to let other teachers know about the petition below.

Lip gloss, video games, jewelry, remote control cars, key chains. Are you troubled that Scholastic is marketing so many products that aren’t books in the Book Club flyers you hand out to students?  Then join teachers all over the country in urging Scholastic to “Put the Book Back in Book Club” by signing the petition below.

Scholastic's book clubs help teachers build classroom libraries and can offer children the opportunity to purchase quality, inexpensive books. Yet a review of Scholastic’s 2008 elementary and middle school book club flyers found that one-third of the items for sale are either not books or are books packaged with other items such as jewelry and toys. 

If you believe that teachers should not be enlisted as salespeople for toys, trinkets, and video games that aren’t educational, please sign the petition below.

Dear Scholastic, We are writing to you as educators to voice our concerns about Scholastic Book Clubs. We appreciate the opportunity to help children build their home libraries. We also appreciate the chance to obtain free, and often badly needed books for our classrooms. We are, however, increasingly concerned that so many of the items featured in your flyers are either not books, or are books packaged with products such as jewelry, toys, and lip gloss. A recent review by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that these items made up approximately one-third of your book club offerings. This poses a difficult dilemma for us. We want our students to have the opportunity to buy low-cost, quality books, but we don’t feel we should use our influence in the classroom to advertise products such as a Hannah Montana bracelet or an M&M’s video game. These items compete with books for children’s attention and have little or no educational value. We are also distressed that a significant number of your books are little more than ads for popular TV shows, and movies such as SpongeBob SquarePants and High School Musical. Every item we distribute to students implicitly bears our stamp of approval. If you want us to continue to promote Scholastic Book Clubs, then please stop asking us to promote toys, trinkets, and electronic media that aren’t educational to our students. Sincerely,

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Please enter your additional comments to Scholastic below.

In addition to the electronic signatures listed below, CCFC has been collecting signatures from teachers at state and local conferences of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

0-25 of 1309 signatures

Number	Date	Name	Please enter your additional comments to Scholastic below.
1309	November 14, 2009	Tracey Bryant Stuckey
1308	November 01, 2009	Michael Cancienne
1307	October 27, 2009	Elizabeth Yount
1306	October 25, 2009	Melissa Culbertson
1305	October 23, 2009	Arlene Torok
1304	October 05, 2009	Erin Korthuis
1303	September 30, 2009	siobhan cafferty
1302	September 28, 2009	Melissa Land
1301	August 24, 2009	Angela Ng	I appreciate when the students are able to order real books for learning, not the trinkets. Thank you.
1300	August 23, 2009	Sara Thomas
1299	August 10, 2009	Debbie McCoy	Please help us get good books to our students without the distraction of games, movie synopsis books and other items.
1298	August 09, 2009	Andrew Price	Look me up. I actually place orders. :)
1297	August 06, 2009	Julie Norris
1296	June 28, 2009	Ellen Stansell, PhD
1295	June 27, 2009	M. RIVERA-ROGERS
1294	June 25, 2009	Janet Pfaff	Please go back to selling books.
1293	June 20, 2009	Megan Schulz
1292	June 20, 2009	Debbie Wharton
1291	June 18, 2009
1290	June 16, 2009	Linda Gottschalk
1289	June 14, 2009	Gerarda Jimenez
1288	June 10, 2009	Joy DiPaola	More books in Spanish (and other languages)! Less Hannah Montana! Let's give these kids some real literature, too, not just all commercialized stuff.
1287	June 10, 2009	Winnie Porter	In California we have a huge percentage of Spanish speaking students, yet when we ask for books in Spanish, you send us few choices. Often times the choices are not good literature and we teachers cannot promote their sale. Please start offering rich choices in Spanish literature in your book fairs as we know you have these books.
1286	June 09, 2009	Carol Santo	I am also distressed that the books of higher educational value are sold in groups instead of being sold alone. Selling in groups makes the price higher and parents on limited budgets usually bypass the higher priced items... even if they do get more than one book in the set. I have a class full of economically disadvantaged students. Their parents want to allow their children to pick from the flier, but they limit their choice to one book. It ultimately becomes the $3 Spongbob book instead of the Set of three Eric Carle books for $10.
1285	June 09, 2009	katherine conway	This is the first year I can remember that I have not placed book orders with you. I was so discouraged by the titles you present and the children were only ordering "cartoon-style" books. Would you ever consider an option where those books are not included? I was also upset about the bonus point system. I used to be able to get so many classroom library books with those points and now it is hardly worth going through the hassle of ordering the books when the perks are so stingy. I am so disappointed with your company.

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