A regular day that feels like Christmas

Picture this:

• an elementary class
• a freckle-faced keener squirming at her desk
• a teacher holding a box and calling out family names  
• a sluggish clock
• unbearable levels of pent-up anticipation

Eventually, my name would ring out. I would scurry to the teacher’s desk to collect a precious bundle of books, which stretched an elastic fastener to its limits.

Even though that was decades ago, I recall those days with incredible clarity. Scholastic book days―my favourite school days.

Weeks after carefully poring through the newsprint catalogue, checking boxes and adding up totals, at last, my book selections would arrive.

Comic collections, Choose-your-own-adventure novels, Clifford and Curious George picture books, the Miss Pickerell series, how-to books, biographies and countless other affordable reads. Scholastic had them all.

Each batch of books came with yet another mail-order catalogue. The marketing whizzes who compiled those flyers knew their trade. They could entice me to read the entire catalogue, tempt me to check as many boxes as my parents would let me (thank you!), and at times, even persuade me to choose non-fiction books. And that’s a feat.

For me, it felt like Christmas, minus the wrapping paper, when the teacher distributed those spoils. Scholastic now complements its traditional print catalogue with traveling book fairs and online orders. I hope those additions mean that today Scholastic-book-day magic touches even more students .

      AWESOME!!!

I just learned that Scholastic donates books to school libraries and teachers based on the volumes of books ordered. Freebies for all to share. That count as an extra dollop of awesome.