New Haven Independent

“We know how to do it already because we’ve seen real cash registers,” said fifth-grade store clerk Kerheim Gentles, who’d already rung in Bunnicula and a Goosebumps book for himself. “I just never experienced doing this in school before.”

Friday was the first of many mornings that Davis fifth-graders like Gentles will have the chance to experience hyping books and making change, thanks to a Schoolwide, Inc-sponsored grant that their Library Media Specialist Lucia Rafala won for them. The grant bought a cash register and a starter bundle of books for younger schoolmates like Jazmine Dell to buy at $1 and $2 discounted rates.

“I’m good at reading,” said Destiny, 8, from over the top of a Wiggles book she was pre-purchase perusing at the brand new Davis store counter. Before now, she woke up early to catch the Wiggles in their TV incarnations, but after her easy transaction with Gentles and fellow book merchant Kelvin Payton, she’ll have them whenever she wants them at the turn of a page.

Second-grade teacher Jessica Hill called her students like Dante Golding (pictured here with Rickie Ricotta’s Mighty Robot vs. the Mutant Mosquitoes from Mercury) “big readers to begin with,” but said, “this will mean just more reading at home.” Lucia Rafala said the increased book-availability would be important for students who burned through books faster than library-lending allowed for — and a good opportunity for budding entrepreneurs like Gentles and Payton to hone their marketing savvy.

“This gives fifth-grade students a chance to be involved with something that’s social and builds responsibility,” said Rafala, who guessed this was the first elementary-school bookstore in New Haven. “Children feed off each other when they’re with books.”

“We’re so proud of our library media specialist!” sung Principal Lola Nathan over the heads of shoppers scouting good reads. “Wonderful, wonderful.”

“We only had one sale so far,” said Payton when the second-graders’ store time was over, although they had a tall stack of signed-for paperbacks on layaway until parent pick-up. Undiscouraged, he and Gentles readied the stock for the next round of shoppers and threw around business-boosting schemes like hand-made designer receipts upon book-purchase. The fifth-graders’ earnings will go to a next bundle of books for sale, with the idea that the store will eventually sustain itself.

“Pretty soon I can run the library and you guys can manage the store!” said Lucia Rafala to her new hires, whom she plans to have train the fourth-graders in June in preparation for a business hand-over.

She may be out of luck. I heard whispers of a management breakaway.