Hawley Elementary School students browsed through dozens of books at their school’s annual fall book fair, which ran from Monday, October 20, to Friday, October 24.

Held in the school’s gymnasium, the book fair was entirely ran and managed by Hawley parents. PTA parent volunteer Marisa Portera, who has a first grade student at Hawley, led her fellow parents in organizing the event.

Multinational education company Scholastic partnered with Hawley for the book fair, much like it does for book fairs at other schools in Connecticut and beyond. Portera said Scholastic shipped out shelves and display tables, while she and her fellow volunteers set everything up. They lined the displays with a wide variety of books, from colorful picture books to thrilling adventure books.

People could also buy one of many posters on display, or buy other items such as journals, pencil cases, or bookmarks spread throughout the tables by the gym entrance.

On opening day, students browsed the fair and wrote down five books they wanted most on a wish list. Students went home later that night and talked with their families about what books they could buy. Portera said the rest of the days were “buying days,” where students come back to the book fair and bought what they agreed to buy.

All the while, volunteers were ready to help students and teachers at a moment’s notice.

Portera said it was amazing seeing the entire Hawley community get involved, especially the parents.

“I mean, this couldn’t happen without the parents,” Portera added. “It would take much longer for everyone to shop with just a teacher, especially with them having to run the registers and manage the money by themselves.”

She said a great thing about the book fair was that parents, along with teachers and other Hawley staff members, could buy books.

“The librarian picked out a whole bunch of books for the school library, while parents came in and shopped early Wednesday morning,” Portera said. “It’s primarily for the kids, of course, but it’s also for the entire Hawley community.”

Students were not the only ones who made book wish lists; teachers picked out a bin of books they wanted for their classroom. Afterwards, Portera said room parents sent a note to students saying, “here’s your teacher’s wish list bin if you’d like to contribute and buy a book for your classroom.”

Portera said they also give teachers and paraprofessionals $20 and $5 respectively to buy books themselves.

“The guidance counselor gets a handful of $5 coupons to give out to students as well, and then we try to give money to the school librarian, too,” she explained.

Hawley tries to hold two book fairs a year, one in the fall and another in the spring. Whether it is the one in the fall or the spring, Portera said students get excited for the book fair every year because, sometimes, a highly anticipated book is released during it.

This was the case for the recent fall book fair, as the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Partypooper, came out on October 21. Even though Partypooper came out the day after Hawley’s fair started, Portera said kids started vying for it right away.

Seeing this kind of excitement for reading is their goal, according to Portera.

“We just want to see people have fun reading,” Portera told The Newtown Bee on October 23. “So seeing everyone happy like this, it’s all we could ask for.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.