No matter whether it pirates or rainforests, enchanted tales or under the sea, choosing a theme makes organising the Book Fair so much easier, as seasoned Book Fair organiser, Deanne Whitfield explains:

‘Once you’ve got a theme, it’s easy! You’ve got an instant focus for your Book Fair and can use it to raise anticipation’.

Dressing up days, fun competitions and decorations based on the theme create a buzz of excitement for the children and encourage everyone to be part of the Book Fair. Before you know it, children are wanting to buy more books, reading more and associating reading with having a fun time.

Deanne always puts together a display based on the theme a week before the Book Fair arrives. 'We’ve learned over the years that a touchy-feely 3-D display works best.‘ Ask the children for contributions to add to the display (books, cuddly toys or any objects that fit in – make sure they are labelled!) and encourage them to bring in their parents to see it. That way, everyone knows the Book Fair will be arriving soon.

Putting the theme together

Every term the Scholastic Book Fairs team works hard to create a theme that is easy to use, that provides lots of opportunities for fun events that children across the whole school will want to take part in and which is visually stimulating.

Once a theme has been decided, it is up to the Design team to make sure all the materials in the Planning Kit: the banner, various different posters and invitations; are visually exciting and create an instant impression. The search starts for an artist to translate all the excitement of the theme into delicious artwork.

Making a splash with Jenny Arthur!

Jenny Arthur proved the ideal choice for this term’s theme: Big Splash – dive into reading! Jenny, whose hero is Quentin Blake, specialised in illustration at the Norwich School of Art, but it was while working as buyer of children’s books for a bookshop that she developed her sense of what appeals to children. ‘I love children’s books and was keen to develop my own. I’d always lived with mad monsters that I drew for fun in my sketch book’, she explains ‘and before I knew it these were being made into picture books, greetings cards and even plush toys!’

‘I enjoy applying a personality to creatures so the chance to create the Big Splash artwork was a brilliant opportunity,’ Jenny says. ‘I was given a very open brief so I was able to play around with the characters.’

Blue Planet gazing...

'I also did research for the theme. I’m addicted to David Attenborough nature films so I watched lots of the underwater films. It is so easy to get inspired by real creatures that look so amazing. Some species of fish are so unusual and the expressions on their faces are incredible to watch. I also used the internet to print out lots of underwater pictures. I stuck them all over my walls so that I was surrounded by them while I worked!’

‘First of all I produced black and roughs and once these were approved by Jennifer LaRoe, the art director, I made grey line drawings which I enlarged on the computer and printed out. Then, it’s the old-fashioned technique of tracing over to produce a light pencil version, which is finally painted.’

‘It takes a couple of days to produce each piece of artwork – there’s one for the banner, several for the different posters and then the invitations and so on. I used designer’s gouache, which is a bit like watercolour but it has lots of lovely intense colours, which really add brightness and light to the finished artwork, and it gives lots of texture too. Then, I finish it with coloured pencils.‘

The masterpiece is revealed...

The Book Fairs team always get excited when completed artwork arrives in the office – all their discussions and ideas about how the theme will look is suddenly before their eyes. And the feeling is always unanimous: This term it’s going to be the best Book Fair ever!

To make your Big Splash Book Fair your best ever, take a look at all the downloadable resources to encourage children to dive into reading!