This year we're going to do a book, like we did last year.
It will be a pre-sale item (meaning it's sold before the auction).
I like the book idea for a number of reasons.
First, every parent has an opportunity to own a piece
of the auction project. Parents who can't afford to go
to the auction, can still contribute to the school.
And there are no hurt feelings (or fist fights) by families
who are outbid.
Second it makes a great gift, (Hello Christmas/Hanukkah)
so many parents buy more than one.
Last year, when we auctioned off the art used to make
the book, we made more than twice as much from book
sales than we did from the sale of the quilts.
Yes, I've just talked a lot about money and sales,
verboten though that might be.
Another advantage, a purely non-monetary one,
is that the students become authors when they write a book.
They go home with knowledge that they wrote and
illustrated something that people liked so much
they paid money for it. (Damn, circled back to money again.)
Honestly, it is fabulous mojo for a child to publish.
There is pride. Such pride.
Last year, sure the students liked seeing the quilts
they made, but they LOVED holding their book and listening
to it being read and seeing their work in the pages.
When I first showed them the finished book and read it
to the class; they glowed.
As an added element to our project, we will again
enter the finished piece in Scholastic's Kids are Author's.
It's a contest run by Scholastic.
Every entry gets a certificate, and that bit of paper
makes the book more real, if you know what I mean.
(Last year our book did do quite well, but that was only the cherry, on top of the chocolate sauce, on the ice cream, on top of the cake filled with love and rainbows, if you know what I mean. It made a wonderful project even cooler, but wasn't the purpose.)