Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Repulse Bay (Nov 30/05) - A special day was held to promote literacy and put smiles on the faces of book lovers in Repulse Bay at Tusarvik school earlier this month.

Tusarvik hosted its annual Scholastic Book Fair on Nov. 19 to the theme of the Reading Kingdom.

Teacher Marie Premi says Scholastic Books sends out an orientation package with everything the school needs to host the event.

"It's, basically, a prepackaged book fair," says Premi.

"You have different categories of books that appeal to kindergarten students all the way up to our senior grades.

"There are also books for adults, so we have something to offer everyone."

The fair's objective is to promote literacy and get more books into school classrooms and libraries.

The event is also used as a fundraiser, with schools receiving a percentage of their sales based on the number of books sold.

Schools that sell less than $1,000 worth of books receive 25 per cent, while those selling more than $1,000 receive 50 per cent.

Tusarvik topped the $1,000 mark this year and will now receive more than $500 worth of free books.

Premi says the teachers decide which books to order, including some readily available at the end of the fair.

"That works well because we already have the book and can simply deduct its cost from our refund.

"We would select any book we had that fits a particular theme teachers may be working on.

"We also select topics that might be lacking in our classrooms or library.

"That approach allows us fill in the gaps of our overall resources every year."

The book fair is most popular among students from kindergarten to Grade 6.

The hottest book among those students this year was Dora the Explorer.

"The younger students like to get recent books and that's the great thing about the book fair - it features many books that have just come out.

"The fair also has the Students are Writers Too contest, which produced the Lonely Inukshuk in Inuglak school in Whale Cove.

"A lot of the kids really look forward to taking part in that every year.

"We also held story writing and family-crest contests, with four $25 gift certificates donated by our local Northern store."