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 1325 signatures

Number	Date	Name	Please enter your additional comments to Scholastic below.
1325	May 24, 2010	Leah Hetebrueg
1324	May 12, 2010	anne harvey
1323	May 12, 2010	h DuBois Bourenane	I am an educator and parent and absolutely detest the number of trinkets and non-educational choices in Scholastic fliers. I also disapprove of the large number of television/movie-based books. Scholastic has an excellent opportunity to support love for reading and make it an affordable option for families - why take advantage of that opportunity by providing such inappropriate options?
1322	April 22, 2010	Shayna Burgher	Just books please, no video games or junk. Thanks
1321	April 21, 2010	Sara Kaut
1320	April 11, 2010	Molly Schlesinger
1319	March 16, 2010	Christina Barron	This is appalling
1318	March 01, 2010	Brook Gardner	I believe that it is very important to encourage reading to young children! Parents and Teachers need to work together and promote literacy, however we shouldn't be doing it by selling toys and misc. items with young children's books. Instead of including small trinkets Scholastic could work towards making small/short activities that go along with the story (the idea of file folder activities and story extenders)
1317	February 16, 2010	Cynthia Gerhardt
1316	February 14, 2010	Terri McGee	Stop this trend of thinking we have to bribe children to read with toys or rewards, most of them will gladly read on their own and if you continue this type of behaviour, it will only get worse.
1315	February 13, 2010	Katy Farber
1314	February 01, 2010	Kristi Bach
1313	January 30, 2010	Laura Andrighetti
1312	December 22, 2009	Cristen Sands
1311	December 17, 2009	Amber Richison	Unfortunately, many of the orders that I receive from parents and students consist mainly of the toy/merchandise rather than the books. This club should work harder to endorse literacy products rather than marketing schemes.
1310	December 03, 2009	Jean Messick	A book fair should be about books, not about toys. With each book fair, I am able to offer fewer titles of quality literature, and children are mesmerized by media items and cheap trinkets. Children will actually get excited about GOOD books. You don't have to trick them into it by selling them TV junk. Does anyone at Scholastic ever try to read the junk they are selling?
1309	November 14, 2009	Tracey Bryant Stuckey
1308	November 01, 2009	Michael Cancienne
1307	October 27, 2009
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.

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