How We Work with Schools

We ❤️ our local schools! For nearly forty years, we’ve worked with schools, teachers, and librarians in a variety of ways to encourage and inspire young readers. And we’d love to work with you, too!

Educator Discounts

Local teachers and librarians receive a 10% discount on all in-store purchases whether they’re for your classroom or not. You just need to be part of our customer rewards program and let us know during checkout that you’re a teacher or librarian. And on the last Sunday of every month, you get 20% off!

Family Shopping Nights

Promote a love of reading AND raise money for your school? It’s a win-win! On a shopping night, your school has the whole store to itself–usually between 6pm and 8pm–and a percentage of sales go back to the school in either cash or store credit (your choice).

It’s the perfect excuse for a party and can include storytimes with teachers/librarians, snacks and drinks, and maybe an author visit (if available). Some schools have even brought bands, choral groups, and dance teams to perform in front of the store. Email us at [email protected] to schedule a shopping night.

Book Fairs

An in-school book fair involves us setting up shop in your school’s library or multi-purpose room for multiple days. We bring in a curated, award-winning selection of books from a wide variety of publishers and work with you to showcase books on topics of interest for your community. No two Linden Tree book fairs are the same!

We always have at least one staff member on site when the fair is open (before school, lunchtime, after school, etc) and ask for the school to provide volunteers for set up, take down, sales, and security when the fair is open. At the end of the fair, we donate a percentage of sales back to the school in either cash or store credit (your choice).

We can also do smaller, popup-style events on campus, such as science fairs and international nights.

An in-store book fair includes a family shopping night as described above, but expands the potential sales window to an entire week and allows families to shop our entire store. Families can visit at their leisure–after school, or even on weekends–and the school receives a percentage of sales attributed to the school’s families in either cash or store credit (your choice). We can also set up an online book fair at the same time so grandparents and other out-of-town boosters can contribute. Best of all, in-store and online book fairs require no volunteers… we do it all!

Email us at [email protected] for more information about book fairs.

Author Visits

Through our relationships with publishers, we bring amazing authors to schools where they can meet and connect with young readers. In the past year alone, we’ve brought authors like Katherine Applegate, Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, Dana Simpson, Judd Winick, Kelly Yang, and more to local schools.

Normally, booking an author to visit your school can cost thousands of dollars, but a visit scheduled through Linden Tree is always free. In return, we ask schools to commit to a minimum book order (varies by author), promote the visit to parents online and offline, and prepare students and teachers by introducing them to the author’s work well in advance.

Email our school/event coordinator Mary Sheila McMahon at [email protected] to get on our educator mailing list and be notified when we're scheduling author visits.

Ordering Books for Classrooms and Libraries

We can order books in bulk for your classroom or library at below list price and, often, at a lower price than a certain online retailer who shall remain nameless. Our selection also extends beyond the books we currently carry in the store–we can bring in paperback picture books, Spanish books, library hardcover editions, and more. Email [email protected] and we’ll figure it out together.

Recommendations

Does your classroom library need a refresh? Need some new read-alouds for storytime? Our bookselling staff consists of former teachers and librarians, parents, grandparents, and well-rounded book nerds eager to make recommendations across a variety of subjects and grade levels. Email [email protected] or come into the store and let’s talk!

Educator Wishlists

Forget Amazon: now you can create a wishlist of books for your classroom or library through Linden Tree and our online partner, Bookshop.org. Just create your wishlist on Bookshop.org, add some books and your desired quantities, and then share your list far and wide! Read here for detailed directions.