Students hit the stores to meet deadlines for book covers

Cheryl Gorey and her son, Jake, were on a mission. Hunting for covers to protect his text books, they drove from store to store over the past several days.

Gorey, a Lake Zurich mom, never imagined it would be such a challenge to find the stretchy cloth book covers that are students' top choice to meet requirements to protect school books.

Two Walgreens stores were sold out. The desperate mom asked friends where she could find the covers while heading to Office Max, with no luck.

Gorey and Jake, an 11-year-old student at St. Francis de Sales in Lake Zurich, gave up and went grocery shopping - and found the covers where they least expected them, at the local Jewel-Osco.

Parents across the suburbs are searching for the bright decorative covers that not only protect school textbooks, but also let students show their personality, much in the way Chandler's assignment notebooks did years ago. Everything from monster trucks to rain drops decorate the covers, also called Book Sox.

Jumbo covers, which range from $2.50 to $5, are almost impossible to locate. Standard-size covers are under $2, but tapping into a supply is hit or miss.

Target stores in Arlington Heights, Lombard and Lake Zurich no longer have the item in stock. In Palatine, Target and Walmart stores had a few covers left Monday, most in pink and purple or decorated with flowers.

Denise Reilly of Roselle, who shopped at a Target near her home, found "plenty of girlie ones," but no covers for boys.

Many teachers, especially in middle school, require that students cover their textbooks in an effort to preserve them. "The books do get abused in the locker," said Dana Hackett, 7th and 8th grade Spanish teacher at South Middle School in Arlington Heights.

Hackett, like many teachers, requires that textbooks be covered with something - and covers made of brown paper grocery bags, the trend in the past, are fine with her.

But brown paper covers are out. Colorful, longer lasting cloth covers are in. "The students are crazy about them," Hackett said.

School officials are learning of the book cover shortage and are making accommodations.

"The parents are having a hard time finding cloth covers," said Sharon Aspinall, principal at Highland Middle School in Libertyville. She said teachers are flexible and added that students can use paper to cover their books.

But students like Jennifer Porema's 7th-grader didn't want to take chances. He feared he would have points taken off his grade if his books were not covered, sending the Roselle woman on a search of three or four stores for jumbo-size covers for two of her children.

Student Tucker Hughes, 11, said the due date to have all his books covered was Monday. His Sunday-night search eventually was successful, but he was ready with a backup plan - he would have asked his mom to write a note to the teacher explaining the shortage.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Gorey was writing notes of her own - on Facebook, hoping to help other parents end their search for the coveted covers. She also called her friends to tell them of her book-cover discovery.

"I was on a quest to find them," Gorey said.