The week of Apr. 15 was the Book Festival at the Randolph Campus, coinciding with National Library Week. But for those in the upper school, it wouldn’t be strange if they didn’t realize it.
Although the Middle School had a number of activities scheduled, including a Charlotte’s Web read-along and a school-wide assembly, the high school’s once-vibrant, week-long celebration of books and literacy has disappeared without much of a trace.
US English teacher Andrew Inchiosa is one of the US liaisons for Book Fest, along with fellow US English teacher Akie Kutsunai. Inchiosa explained that US-centric activities have been few and far between ever since he arrived at SPA in 2019.
“Last year, we were kind of part of the read-aloud,” Inchiosa said, “but I think because [MS and US] schedules are still a little different, and because most of the people attending are [from the] middle school, it became more of a middle school-centric thing,” he said.
According to MS English teacher and English Department Chair Carrie Clark, one important factor in Book Fest’s disappearance is a lack of institutional support.
With “the old version of [the Book Fest], there was a big committee of parents that really drove it,” Clark said. “I used to be a part of that as a Middle School rep. And then there was [US English teacher Randall] Findlay, who was part of that … He was really amazing and drove a lot from the Upper School side of things.”
The committee, which had about 10 members, took on the bulk of Book Fest planning. They coordinated the book sales, invited an author to speak, and set up faculty-parent book clubs.
However, around 2018 the committee decided they wanted to move away from planning speaker commitments and book sales. An alternate vision for the Book Fest was never realized after that. It also didn’t help that after COVID, the committee shrunk down to only one parent representative.
Nowadays, “the parents are trying to figure out how they want [Book Fest] to look,” Clark said. “They would love the faculty-parent book clubs, and they’d love to support whatever the teachers want to do. And the teachers have kind of been like, ‘How do we elevate books if we’re not having this big visual sale; […] how do we want this to be?’”
Another factor that impacted Book Fest planning was the schedule. The US has less time to dedicate to Book Fest than the MS. Plus, this year’s addition of a second round of narrative comments and student-led conferences may have limited the amount of time that teachers could spend on Book Fest work.
“I’m interested in what students would enjoy, like if Book Fest in the upper school sounds fun [to them],” Inchiosa said.
Clark emphasized that she wants to have Book Fest planning start earlier in the year so that teachers and parents are under less of a time crunch to get it complete. She also suggested that students could give their input to shape the festival into something they’d be interested in taking part in.
“It will be cool if there’s a new vision that can make [Book Fest] a rich, engaging celebration throughout the Randolph Campus,” Clark said.
The last time The Rubicon reported on the US Book Fest was in 2017. It was an annual tradition to hear a published author speak to the school (2017’s guest was poet Michael Bazzett), continuously read a book aloud in 15-minute chunks, and attend both a used and new book sale.
