Once every couple of months, we would sit at our desks,
fidgeting for what we knew was coming. Our fingers itchy for the colorful
newsprint as the teacher separated a stack and instructed the kids at the front
of the room to pass it back. The Scholastic Book order went in once or twice a
semester and it may be the only thing I can remember from those years with
absolute clarity—the feel of the newsprint between your fingers, the smell of
the ink. Perhaps even the taste (weird
things sometimes made their way into my mouth.) Our instructions were
simple—take it home, consult your parents, and bring back the sheet with your
carefully inked selections and a check for the amount. Simple enough, surely, but the teacher may
have never known the drama and angst such an undertaking. I would start before I left school that
afternoon. The circling. The bargaining.
I was typically allowed at least one order each
go-round. I spent a couple days, madly
circling the things I wanted, then would sit down with my mother to parse out
exactly what we could afford. Usually,
it was at least one book, sometimes two.
In later years, I was all about sticker albums, but earlier, it was all
fiction. A few weeks later, we’d wait, fidgeting again for the drop. For the
books with their smooth, glossy covers to be parceled out. I loved the feel of
them, loved to stack them carefully on my desktop. Loved the plastic tote bags your order would
arrive in, sort of a ziplock bag for books.
I would take them home and devour them.
Sometimes, they didn’t make it unread through the walk or bus ride home.
. At first of course, it was thin
saddle bound paper back picture books like the Clifford series. Then perfect bound, longer volumes as I got
older. I eventually hunted mostly for mysteries and ghost stories, if I had to
narrow my choices, these were a good bet. I probably had them read inside of a
week,and was left to wait, breathless, next appearance of that newsprint flier in
the teacher’s hands at the front of the room.
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