Students, parents, teachers, and staff were excited to see the YISS main lobby filled with books during the annual Fall Book Fair held Tuesday, November 29 through Friday, December 2. For the first time in three years, the entire YISS community was freely welcomed back to campus to shop at the book fair. With over 1500 titles stocked, from picture books to adult reads at 30% less than retail, the book vendor, Tongbang Books, offered something of interest to everyone. In addition to their vast literary selection, Tongbang consigned over 300 books from the Christian book vendor, Word of Life. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the book fair was bustling with classrooms visiting back-to-back at 30-minute intervals throughout the school day. Many parents of elementary-aged students jointly shopped with their children when their class visited to browse books. Middle and high school students were welcome to visit the book fair during homeroom or recess.

In conjunction with the Fall Book Fair, YISS hosted author and illustrator, Ho Baek Lee, for a fun-filled book reading and activity time as well as a book signing. Mr. Lee led three sessions for elementary students, K-1, 2-3, and 4-5. During each session, Mr. Lee shared his gift of drawing and guided the students through their own creative drawing exercises. Afterward, Mr. Lee spent time at the Fall Book Fair, autographing copies of the book he authored and illustrated, One Night Out, and the book that he illustrated, Bee Bim Bop! Ninety autographed copies of Bee Bim Bop! written in English by Linda Sue Park sold out. 

The Fall Book Fair is an annual event organized by YISS PTO in collaboration with the YISS Libraries. The YISS PTO not only sponsored half the funds for the visit by author-illustrator Ho Baek Lee but also coordinated classroom library donations. Elementary homeroom teachers and MS ELA, ELL, and SLS teachers were invited to select books from the book fair that they would like to see added to their classroom libraries. The YISS community generously fulfilled this request, purchasing 350 books for our classrooms. This year’s classroom book donation drive was a huge success! 

It is no surprise that this year’s event set a new book fair sales record. As usual, ten percent of sales proceeds will be donated to the YISS PTO, which will use the funds to support a variety of reading initiatives, such as new books for the YISS libraries and classroom libraries, author visits, as well as funding the ES Read-A-Thon and the MS Reading Appreciation Program. Thank you to the YISS community for supporting literacy in our classrooms!