Soaring Into the Millennium With Book Sales

by Darla Staley

Owen Valley Middle School

 

      Imagine a packed bookstore full of energetic young adolescents looking at and talking about books. This can be seen daily at Owen Valley Middle School in Spencer in the student-­operated bookshop. The Little Shoppe of Books started as a school bookshop project in 1990.  It was part of a project directed by Dr. Loran Braught of Indiana State University and funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc.

      The goals of our bookshop are to make books accessible to our students at the cheapest price and, in turn, promote more reading by our students. The bookshop has grown from a small room to an actual store about the size of a regular classroom. The bookshop has available books for all ages, and most of the books are ordered through recommendations and requests from students. The books are sold at least 30 percent off the list price.

      The Little Shoppe of Books has become a total community bookshop, since it is the only bookshop in our county. Special book orders are taken from staff at other schools and from community members and groups. We are now considered a “true” bookstore, for we carry school supplies, sports clothing, greeting cards, and specialty gift items appropriate for the particular season.

      Once each year the 60 students who manage the bookshop take a field trip to Indianapolis. While in the city, they visit two bookstores:  one, a small independently owned store and the other, a large book chain. The visits provide the students with an opportunity to compare how the two stores operate, and they generate lots of ideas for use in the bookstore.

      Our school is fortunate to bring in an author to visit each year. The bookshop begins a campaign early to offer books by the author so that all students can read various titles by the author and have the opportunity to receive the author’s autograph.

      We usually sell between $400 and $800 in book sales for an author visit. Teachers also purchase copies of the author’s books for their classroom libraries or to give to students who might not be able to purchase the books.

      We currently sell between $200 and $300 worth of books during an average week. Even though our bookshop is housed in the middle school, former students who now attend the high school continue to come back to purchase books.

      We have grown into a full business with tremendous rewards for our entire community. We have teachers at each grade level who volunteer to use their personal lunch time to help with supervision in the bookstore. Our staff, student body, and community are devoted to making reading an important component of lifelong learning. We have found the key and turned the lock allowing students to learn how to operate a business and promote the love of reading.