As Used Book Sale Chair Maia Feigon described her organizational process for a Parker tradition, she revealed her role at the helm of a sustainable and inclusive movement – inviting the broader Chicago community inside to experience not only the used book sale, but the school itself, in action. Feigon described the emphasis on donation efforts to schools that don’t have access to the same resources as Parker, and went on to describe the partnerships which she’s fostered.
She works to curate selections for each partner and organization, catering to their specific needs and preferences. Some want either adult or kid categories, others only within a specific genre or up to a certain grade level. The ethos behind making the sale accessible is to “integrate with the community, so they have the opportunity to see what goes on in Parker,” Feigon said.
Because of an influx of board books, cardboard hardcovers designed for early learners, organizers decided to invite some of the area preschools into the sale. “I was a first time parent, who decided to shop the sale and came across one of my childhood favorites, Ramona, and thought maybe my daughter would like it…she was hooked, she loved it,” Feigon said, in the spirit of the sale’s magic, which drove her to become involved.
Speaking to the evolution of the sale, she described the outpouring of volunteers who help to sort donations once a month, October through March, enabling her to create rough genres. Books that don’t neatly fit the mainstream categories of donations are tucked off to the side, infusing “hidden treasure” moments to elevate the browsing experience. Volunteers often come across “things that are rare or unusual, but [they] usually fall into the category of quirky or unique versus rare and precious,” Feigon said. She believes the three main goals of the sale are to raise money for the library, reuse old books, and give back to the entire school community, faculty, students, and parents alike. “I think it’s also good for kids to see people in the school browsing through books, picking up books, engaging with books…transforming a small gym into a space for the promotion of reading is a really cool thing,” Upper School English teacher and Department Co-Chair David Fuder said. He believes that the space serves as a reminder for the “longevity of books,” reinforcing the idea that these texts are viable and relevant and that someone has held this very thing in their hands before you and derived enjoyment and value.
There is a symbolism and a power in the idea of “passing [a book] on instead of throwing it away,” Fuder said. “[Reading] is like exercise, meditation, yoga, any practice that I think you can integrate,” Upper School English teacher Jeffery Berger-White said. The used book sale is promoting this practice, encouraging the community to develop the healthy habit of engaging with a physical text, from the perspective of both teachers. “Reading is necessarily an act of empathy,” Berger-White said. He believes that it can help us to practice empathy and increase our capacity for it in a way that can hopefully be extended to real life interactions. Participants may be walking away with a book or two, but the purchases themselves are so valuable. Berger-White sees a profound interaction with a made thing, a physical text, versus a non-tactile, digital reading experience. The books that we connect with are mysterious, a matter of “taste, timing, and wiring,” Berger-White said.
