Book Fair 2025

Articulate, Confident, Responsible Citizens of the World

Important Dates

Wednesday, October 1, 2025: Liz Garton Scanlon visits 3rd grade
Tuesday, October 7, 2025: Devin Elle Kurtz visits Kindergarten
Tuesday, October 14, 2025: Rachel Ignotofsky visits 4th and 5th grade
Monday, November 3, 2025: Michael Buckley visits 6th and 7th grade
Monday, November 10th, 2025: Cassidy Wasserman visits 4th and 5th grade
Tuesday, November 11, 2025: Nathan Pyle visits 1st and 2nd grade
November 18, 2025: Cocktail Party
November 19-21, 2025: Class Visits

Volunteers Needed!

Volunteers are needed to help make Book Season a success! We need volunteers to set up and break down Synod Hall, staff the Book Fair, serve at the cocktail party, and help chaperone classroom visits. To sign up for one or more volunteer opportunities, please click here!

Book Fair Shopping

Wednesday, November 19th-Friday, November 21
7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Synod Hall

Parents, caregivers, faculty, and staff are all encouraged to shop at the Book Fair at any time during the hours of operation.

Questions?

Please contact this year's Book Fair Chairs:
Sharnette Donacien, P'27, '28
Danny Bisbing, P'28, '30, '34
Zoë Bisbing, P'28, '30, '34

It's Book Season at Cathedral!

The Parents Association’s Book Fair Committee looks forward to gathering the Cathedral community together to celebrate our love of books and reading! Join us as we transform historic Synod Hall, located on Cathedral’s campus, to a book lover’s dream. Our NYC-based supplier McNally Jackson will supply us with thousands of books, including some of the hottest new releases and popular titles, while also showcasing the classics.

Book Season includes a weeklong literary celebration including the Book Fair itself, adults-only cocktail party, and class visits to the Book Fair, as well as author visits sprinkled throughout the fall.

Cocktail Party

Mingle with other Cathedral parents, find some great books for you and your kids, and donate books to your kids' classrooms--all while enjoying wine, refreshments, and delicious hors d'oeuvres.

We are thrilled to host a special guest at this year’s Cocktail Party. Melinda Wenner Moyer, author of the newly released Hello, Cruel World! Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times, will discuss her new book in conversation with Zoë Bisbing from 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. Find out more about Moyer below in our Visiting Authors section.

Plus, don’t miss your chance to win a spectacular raffle prize:

4 Tickets to The Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet!*

*Generously donated by Ashley Laracey Schumacher P’34

Please join us for this year's Cocktail Party on:

Tuesday, November 18th
6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Synod Hall

This is a free, adults-only event. RSVP by Tuesday, November 11th by clicking here.

Class Visits

Each class will have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair during school and purchase books. Click here for the class visit schedule. On Monday, November 17th, students will receive envelopes to take home. On the day of your child’s class visit to the Book Fair, please send your child to school with cash in the provided envelope to buy books (suggested amount is $30). Please make sure the envelope is labeled with your child's name, class, and enclosed dollar amount.

Author and Illustrator Visits

We are thrilled to welcome these excellent authors and illustrators to Cathedral’s Book Fair festivities! Learn more below, and keep checking back for updates on who will be visiting and reading to our students.

Liz Garton Scanlon is the award winning author, poet, teacher, and speaker of the Bibsy Cross series–books that have dazzled critics and touched the hearts of students, parents, and teachers alike. Scanlon read to our third graders on Wednesday, October 1st.

During her visit, Liz asked students to share a skill they honed with practice, and likened it to her own iterative writing process. She then read an excerpt from one of the books in the Bibsy Cross series, after which our curious students had the opportunity to ask questions.

Devin Elle Kurtz is an established illustrator who made her authorial debut with her book, The Bakery Dragon, which was selected as an Indie Next List pick, an Indie bestseller, and the Overall Winner of the 2025 Barnes & Noble Young Adult & Children’s Book Award.

Kurtz debuted her new book, The Bakery Dragon and the Fairy Cake, to our kindergarteners on Tuesday, October 7. Students had the opportunity to meet Ember, the Bakery Dragon, and served as the very first audience (and Devin's first New York City school visit!)

Rachel Ignotofsky, New York Times Best Selling author & illustrator of Women in Science, What's Inside a Bird's Nest, and more read her newest book, Dinosaurs: Exploring Prehistoric Life and Geological Time to Cathedral 4th and 5th graders on Tuesday, October 14th.

Ignotofsky talked to students about her three favorite dinosaurs (parasaurolophus walkeri, allosaurus, and vegavis, respectively), the oldest fossil ever found (3.5 billion years old!) and gave our students an abridged history of life on earth. Families who would like a signed and personalized copy can order here by Wednesday, November 5. Select Cathedral as your pickup location.

Michael Buckley, television writer, producer, and New York Times Bestselling author of The Sisters Grimm will be visiting The Cathedral School on Monday, November 3, 2025 to talk with our 6th and 7th graders and read an excerpt from his new book, The Weirdies.

The Weirdies follows three VERY weird siblings abandoned by their parents, who are forced to learn what family really means amid the chaos they create.

Families who would like a signed and personalized copy can pre-order here no later than Wednesday, October 29. Select Cathedral as your pick up location.

Gaming industry illustrator Cassidy Wasserman made her authorial debut with her graphic novel, On Guard!, which was selected as a Kids’ Indie Best Pick and an Amazon Best Book of the Month for ages 9-12.

Wasserman will be reading to our fourth and fifth graders on Monday, November 10th–but that’s not all. Wasserman will also be giving a fencing demonstration to our students to celebrate the book’s message of championing girls in sports. Families who would like a signed and personalized copy can place their order here no later than Wednesday, November 5th. (Book purchases are open to the whole school community and will be delivered to students’ classrooms).

Nathan W. Pyle, New York Times Best Selling Author of Strange Planet, will be reading to our kindergarten and 1st grade students on Tuesday, November 11, from his new book, Tuck Me In!

Pyle's book about the relationship between the moon and ocean is a "masterly combination of fantasy and science to tuck in to every bookcase." Tuck Me In! attempts to answer the age old question: how does a beach go to bed?

Families who would like a signed and personalized copy can order here no later than Wednesday, November 5th. Select Cathedral as your pick up location.

Cocktail Party Keynote Speaker: Melinda Wenner Moyer

Melinda Wenner Moyer is an award-winning contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and a regular contributor to The New York Times. She is the author of How To Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes and Hello Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. She writes the popular Substack parenting newsletter, Now What, at melindawmoyer.substack.com.