It’s happened before at places like Westside Elementary and Demopolis Middle, but never at Demopolis High School.

However the school has its librarian Cynthia Whitlock, to thank for making history happen this week on DHS grounds.

On Monday, Whitlock brought the first Scholastic Book Fair to Demopolis’ High School and will run the literature sale until the end of the week.

“This is our first book sale at the high school. I’ve thought about it a few times before and I’ve just been asking around to get a feel for the success,” she said. “Finally I had enough word of mouth and decided to have one here.”

Choosing a cost-effective jungle theme as the fair’s decor, since the library was already decorated with tigers and leaves, students and residents were welcomed by a croc hunter influenced Whitlock, plenty of greenery and a smokeless, heatless log fire.

“We just built on to the jungle theme because the library’s been decorated like one for the past few years,” Whitlock laughed. “When this is over, we can just put everything back up in the library.”

After having seen approximately 265 students in the first two days of the sale, Whitlock said the bestsellers were “Chicken Soup for the Mother and Daughter Soul,” “Chicken Soup for the African American Soul,” and “To Kill A Mockingbird,” which students are buying for classes next fall.

The sale also offers many technological, gaming and software books and is open to the entire community.

Today and Friday Whitlock and students will be working the Book Fair from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. On Thursday, books will be on sale from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Proceeds from the fair will go toward purchasing new books for the library, Whitlock said, and may even pay for a book return slot to adorn the school’s hallway.