Literati Avis 

This is my second year in a row doing Literati Book Fairs. Book fair set ups are generally exhausting and in the past a lot of our volunteers have complained, but literati has made this experience so much easier and more enjoyable for everyone. Their online tools are a lot simpler and their modern approach is much appreciated. Our kids loved the books and I personally loved seeing options that weren’t the same generic books I see at Walmart that everyone has. It feels like this is a company that genuinely loves books, and that makes me happy.

Shopping the book fair with my grandson and granddaughter on Grandparents Day was such a joy. The treasure decorations made it feel like a fun adventure, and the kids were thrilled with the book choices. I loved that everything was books, no toys - so I didn't have to say "no". A grandparent never wants to do that! We left with happy kids, great books and wonderful memories.

We've been doing Literati fairs for 2 years now. Prior to that we were with another company and it was exhausting. I don't think people get how physically draining it is to set these up and how many volunteers burn out. I'm so glad we found Literati, who has seriously improved the experience. The digital tools to manage the fair are WAY better and way more modern- "nostalgia" is no excuse to make school volunteers work harder than we need to. We had record sales this year and actually had fun doing it!

Last year, my son came home from school with the most unexpected and wonderful gift… a Literati box full of books from his favorite basketball player of all time, Steph Curry. Steph and his wife gave Literati books to the children in the Oakland Unified School District, where over 88% of the student population receives reduced-priced lunches. Steph is a local hero, and this gift was no ordinary gift. The box itself was beautifully branded and durable. Inside, it was full of a variety of age-appropriate books that were well-curated, interesting and high-quality. For me, it felt like finding a unique treasure. One of the books in particular, “Size Wize”, was such a hit, my son still reads it over a year later. He references it for his homework assignments on nonfiction. He’s become quite the expert on animals as a result. We moved away from Oakland into a different school district this year that unfortunately uses Scholastic for its book fairs. When my son came home from that fair with a cheap slime toy and yet another graphic novel full of cartoons and hardly any words, I was so disappointed. I’m now on a mission to try and get his school to switch to Literati book fairs. The quality is so much higher and I want to do everything I can to recreate that special moment my son had with his Literati gift. Instilling a passion for reading in our children, especially our boys, is priceless.

We made the switch to Literati a year ago and have had 2 book fairs with a third one scheduled later this spring. They are very customer service oriented. My sales rep was always available and the pre-planning meeting you have is invaluable to learn about new or upcoming events. Take advantage of their webinars and videos prior to your fair. The technology was easily set up and worked so well for the entire fair. Making the switch has been the best change we ever made.

We've hosted Literati fairs for three years now, and each one runs more smoothly than the last. The consistency matters- I know what to expect, the set up is easy, and our families look forward to it every year. What I appreciate most is that Literati focuses on real books, not trinkets and toys masquerading as a book fair.

Horrible. Would not recommend to my enemies much less my friends. They are the worst-poor books and even worse customer “support” (ha ha)

Books came in damaged. They lie about the pricing it is 12 dollars plus the cost of the books witch is twice the price of Amazon. Then you can't go in and cancel because the website does not work. If you want a supervisor you get told there is not one. Terrible company do business elsewhere. DO NOT WAST YOUR MONEY OR TIME ON THIS COMPANY.

My 11 yr old is a voracious reader, and I was hoping the monthly subscription would expand her horizons beyond the classics I give her and what our small town school and library have. The 5 "curated" books did do that, and at first we were excited. BUT ultimately it has been such a big disappointment to her that I know we will not continue once the year is up. It is set up as though it is responsive to the child's feedback through 2 mechanisms: rating the books you have received so far and a "book shuffle." After we did this a couple times, I reached out to Literati by email because her preferences seemed to not be taken into account. This was especially disappointing for her because she was excited about several of the books on her book shuffle that she rated highly. Several boxes later, she has received zero with any similarity to those. The themes continue to be dark and often violent, which she absolutely does not like. The person who responded to my email was completely unhelpful and indicated that there was no way to get any additional messages to whoever is doing the "curating." To sum up: The subscription so much potential, but unfortunately it has only built up my child's expectations and solicited her involvement only to ignore her feedback and be ultimately quite disappointing. She used to be so excited to open her box, and now we just sort of hope for 1 or 2 books that will be ok. We have a few boxes left so I will update if it changes, but I really cannot recommend it at this time.

I was very disturbed when I attended a Literati book fair at my child's elementary school this past year. The book selections seemed pretty inappropriate and a common theme seems to be death. I picked up a suspicious title and skimmed through it. I was horrified what I found. The book was called "Loki: A bad god's guide to being good". Inside there were depictions of the devil, this creature being chained up, and one page had a note that read "I'll give you a pass for planning to kill your family because you took it back quickly" On the same page it reads "I wonder if I can plot Valerie's death safely? I thought." I contacted Literati and they were unconcerned but said they would pass my message on to management. I contacted our school principal who removed the book immediately. Be careful what you're letting your kids read.

Once they get your credit card info, they make it almost impossible to cancel the account. No customer service, no communication, they just keep charging your card and send you junk. Horrible company.

As someone on here said id leave 0 stars if i could. I bought the books i wanted to keep and returned the rest,they are saying i returned them too late and charged me $60 dollars when i only bought 2 of the 5 books. The 2 books was $14,and the other 3 was apparently $60 when it should be $60 for all 5 so they overcharged me on top of it. I got this subscription thinking it was a good way to discover new books when i couldnt get to the library after just moving and they just scammed me out of $60+ i emailed customer service several times to resolve this or at least have the books sent back to me and they refuse to do ANYTHING.

I talked to customer service to cancel my order (before it shipped) due to not liking any of the books. I was asked multiple times in different ways if I would like to keep the subscription, which is frustrating and disrespectful. They also charged me after the fact that my subscription had been canceled. Not impressed at all. Please spend your money somewhere else.

We tried the book scubscription service via a promotion through our school, which we loved! We canceled because it was out of our price range, and were accidentally late turning in our last box and had to contact customer service. Sarah helped us get the box in the mail and notated our account for when it returned. They were very friendly and accessible via phone, and quick to respond via the webform, too, when Amber reached out because we had an additional issue. Sarah and Amber made a stressful situation less so, and I hope one day we can afford to participate in the book box subscription again. I've recommended it to all my friends with young readers.

In my opinion, Scholastic book fairs are much better for librarians and schools than Literati's version. Scholastic cares about education instead of using it as a way to make money off students' families. I never suggest schools participate in Literati Book Fairs or any of their other money grabs and our school will never again.

Crappy, predatory service…

Late books, awful customer service, not age appropriate books, don’t resolve issues.

Don’t bother with them. Not worth it.

I'm two boxes in and so far my kid doesn't like any of the books. You can only provide feedback on the book and there isn't anywhere else you can provide general feedback on what types of books your child likes (other than the swiping). so i think it would just take a long time for the selections to be curated for your child (if at all...).

and then when you want to cancel, you have to chat with someone and they take a long time to respond, then they try to convince you to stay. they definitely dont make it easy for you to cancel which is really really annoying. if you have a good product, you shouldn't have to trap people into keeping their subscription.

If I could give zero stars, I would. The customer service is absolutely the worst. Literati cancelled my spring fair without any advanced notice. Luckily, Scholastic came to the rescue. The book selection for the fair is poor at best. Do yourself a favor, book with Scholastic Book Fairs.

Terrible company. We had a signed contract for a book fair and they decided to cancel months later because they changed how big the school should be. Wish I wouldn't have trusted our kids book fair to this company.

As a librarian who wanted to try a new book fair company, I thought Literati offered something fresh, focused more on books than junk erasers, and would be something new to try. However after trying to use them twice, the book selection is poor, there is not enough book stock sent, there is still a ton of posters and junk sent to sell, and the customer service is unresponsive.