How does the Scholastic Book Fair eWallet work?

The Scholastic Book Fair eWallet is a cashless account a parent sets up from the school's Book Fair homepage, which opens three weeks before the fair. You add money, and relatives can chip in through a shared link. Every eWallet is preloaded on the fair register, so your child checks out by name. Unspent funds never expire and stay in your Scholastic account.

How does the Scholastic eWallet work?

You create an eWallet for your child from the school's Book Fair homepage and add money to it. The money is available at once. At the fair, every eWallet is already loaded on the register, so the cashier looks your child up by name, grade or teacher and the purchase comes out of the balance.

Can grandparents add money to an eWallet?

Yes. When you create the eWallet, Scholastic offers an "Invite Friends and Family" option. You can share the link to your child's eWallet or send Scholastic's pre-written email, and grandparents, aunts or friends add funds from their side.

What happens to unused eWallet money?

Unspent eWallet money never expires. It stays in your Scholastic account for future fairs, and you can move it to another child (even at a different school), spend it online with Scholastic including Book Clubs, or give it to the Share the Fair program. Scholastic emails the account holder a balance reminder.

Can you use the eWallet online?

The eWallet is built for checkout at the fair register. Scholastic says a leftover balance can be used to shop online with Scholastic, including Book Clubs. The school's online fair is a separate store that you open from the school's Book Fair homepage and pay for at checkout.

When is my child's book fair?

Check the flyer your child brought home, or search for the school on Scholastic's Find Your Fair page. Schools appear there three weeks before the fair starts and stay listed until three weeks after it ends. If yours is missing, the host may have hidden the page, so ask the school office.

Scholastic Book Fair eWallet: How It Works

The flyer comes home in the backpack, folded twice, and your child has already circled a glowing pen, a poster and a book they cannot name. The Scholastic Book Fair eWallet is the payment most schools now suggest, and the Scholastic eWallet also changes what happens to leftover money. Here is how it works, how to set it up in a few minutes, and how to make sure the money goes mostly to books.

Why the Scholastic Book Fair eWallet beats a pocket of cash

Scholastic describes the eWallet as a digital payment option that is "a secure, convenient alternative to cash" and lets students shop the fair on their own. Nothing gets lost in the hallway, and nobody counts change out of a lunchbox.

Cash still works at most fairs, and some families prefer it. The eWallet earns its place in two cases: your child shops during class time without you, or relatives want to give a book instead of a toy.

The two jobs an eWallet does

The first job is payment. Every eWallet is preloaded on the fair register, and the cashier searches by student name, grade or teacher, or scans the barcode on a printed eWallet (how checkout works). Your child walks up with a book and walks away with it.

The second job is a spending cap you set ahead of time. The register can only spend what you loaded, so the amount in the eWallet is the budget. That turns the fair into a small, low-stakes lesson in choosing, and the rest of this guide builds on it.

A parent and child at a kitchen table planning together over a tablet and a paper flyer, with a jar of coins between them

How to set up a Scholastic eWallet, step by step

Setting up a Scholastic eWallet takes a few minutes once the school's fair page is live. Scholastic's family setup answer gives the path, and these steps follow it:

Find your school's fair. Go to Find Your Fair (scholastic.com/fair leads there) and search for your school. The homepage appears up to three weeks before the fair starts.
Open the eWallet section. On the school's Book Fair homepage, go to the eWallet section and choose to create one.
Sign in or create a Scholastic account. Use an email you check, because balance reminders go to whoever created the eWallet.
Create one eWallet per child. Scholastic asks for a separate eWallet for each student, since every child shops on their own. Siblings each get their own.
Add the amount you agreed on. Funds are available immediately, so a late-night top-up still works the next morning.
Invite family if you like. The "Invite Friends and Family" option lets you share a link or send Scholastic's email template so grandparents can add money.
Tell your child the number. A child who knows the balance can plan. A child who does not finds out at the register.

The part parents get wrong

Timing is the most common slip. A school's fair page only shows up three weeks before the start date, so searching in early September for an October fair returns nothing. If the fair is close and your school still does not appear, Scholastic notes that the host can hide the page from search, and the school office can send you the direct link.

Logins are the second slip. You manage the eWallet from the Scholastic account that created it, so use the same email every year.

eWallet vs cash vs the online fair

The eWallet, cash and the online fair each suit a different family. The comparison uses what Scholastic's own pages say about each.

Option	How your child pays	Who can add money	Leftover money	Best for
eWallet	Cashier finds the eWallet at the register by name, grade or teacher	Parent, plus friends and family by link or email	Stays in your Scholastic account and never expires	Kids who shop during class, families with generous relatives
Cash	Child hands over money at the register	Whoever packs the envelope	Change comes home in the backpack, or does not	Families who prefer cash or decide the day before
Online fair	You order from home through the school's Book Fair homepage	You, at checkout	Nothing left over	Relatives far away, sold-out titles, gifts

Pick the eWallet if your child shops without you, or if relatives want to help. Pick cash if your child shops with you at a family night and you want a hands-on lesson in counting change. The online fair works alongside either, and you reach it from the Online Shopping section of the same school page.

What happens to leftover eWallet money

Leftover eWallet money stays put. Scholastic says eWallet funds never expire: after the fair, any balance remains for future fairs, and the account holder gets an email reminder of what is left.

You have four choices for the balance. Keep it for the next fair, move it to another child, spend it online with Scholastic (Book Clubs included), or give part of it to the Share the Fair fund. If your child returns an item bought at the fair, the amount goes back into the eWallet.

A canceled fair does not cost you the money either, because the funds stay in the eWallet. A move is covered too: Scholastic allows transfers between children even when they attend different schools. To close an eWallet, choose Manage, then Remove eWallet, and move any balance to another child first.

How to set a book fair budget with your child

A book fair budget works best when your child helps set it. Sit down with the flyer before the fair, look at what is on it together, and agree on one total before anyone loads the eWallet.

Then split the total into two parts. Most of it is for books, and a small, fixed slice is for one extra item, if your child still wants one after choosing books. A sticky note with the split inside the backpack helps a younger child remember it at the table.

A rule that keeps it simple

Books come first and extras second. Your child picks books until the book part of the budget is used, and only then looks at erasers and posters. If the book part runs out before the list does, the leftover titles become a wish list for a birthday or the library.

Kids who hit the limit early learn more from that moment than from any lecture. Let the eWallet say no, so you do not have to.

A child with a backpack at a book fair table, reaching for a stack of books while a small shelf of toys and posters waits to the side

How to steer your child toward good books by age

Good book fair picks start with what your child already loves. Ask before the fair what they read last and liked, and look for more by the same author, in the same series or of the same kind.

Age gives you a second filter:

Ages 3 to 6: picture books you will enjoy reading aloud fifty times. Our read-aloud books for kids list shows what holds up on repeat.
Ages 6 to 8: short chapter books with pictures on most pages and a series to follow. See first chapter book series for kids leaving picture books behind.
Ages 8 to 10: longer novels, graphic novels and funny series. Our books for 8 to 10 year olds list makes a good shortlist to bring along.

Let your child make the final choice inside those lines. A book they picked is a book they want to open, even when it is not the one you would have chosen.

When your child only wants the poster

Some children come to the fair for the novelty items, and that is fine inside the budget. Offer a trade instead of a ban: one book in the bag earns the extra. If a graphic novel or a joke book is the only thing that pulls your child toward the shelves, count it as a book.

Common mistakes, and what to do if money is tight

Most book fair stress comes from a few small slips:

Mistake: loading the eWallet without a talk. A balance with no plan gets spent on the first shiny thing. Agree on the split first.
Mistake: setting up too early. The school page goes live three weeks before the fair. Put a reminder in your calendar for that week instead of searching too soon.
Mistake: forgetting the balance. Leftover money is easy to lose track of. Watch for Scholastic's balance email and use the funds at the next fair or online.
Mistake: one eWallet for two kids. Each child needs their own, because each shops on their own.

A child in a knit hat curled up in a beanbag chair at home, reading a new book beside a small stack of books and a paper bag from the fair

If you cannot afford the fair this year

Scholastic's stated aim is that no kid leaves the fair empty-handed, and it runs a giving program called Share the Fair: anyone can contribute, and schools pass the money to students who need help buying books. Ask your child's teacher or the fair host quietly.

Free books arrive in other ways too. Our guide to free books for kids by mail covers programs that send books home at no cost, and a public library card covers the rest. For more ways to stretch a small budget, see our tips on school book sales.

Your book fair checklist and next steps

Your book fair checklist has six items for the week the flyer comes home:

Fair date: checked on the flyer or on Scholastic's Find Your Fair page.
eWallet: created once the school page is live, one per child, under an email you check.
Budget: agreed with your child, split into books and one extra.
Family: invite link sent to grandparents who asked what to give.
Book list: two or three titles or series your child wants, written down.
Leftovers: a plan for the balance after the fair.

The fair is also a good moment to add one book no store sells: a story where your child is the hero. KidTeller turns your child's photo into the illustrated main character of a story written for them and tuned to their age, read aloud in a natural voice or in your own cloned voice, or printed as a softcover book. It makes a warm gift next to the fair haul, and the book fair memories parents share show how long these small moments last.

Try itCreate a personalized storybookYour child's name and photo, a story in minutes