You guys, I totally have a confession. I think that my favorite thing about Mila being in school is that now I get those Scholastic book catalogs again. You do know what I'm talking about, right? If you don't, maybe we shouldn't even be hanging out. No, but seriously, Mila pulled out her flyer for the book fair along with the catalog and my mouth started watering, a knee-jerk reaction. Tonight, after I put my kids to bed, I actually popped some popcorn and sat at the table with the catalog for an hour (the TV fall line-up needs to come now!) But, do you remember how exciting it was to order your books, completely forget about them, and then one day you walk into class and you go, "Wait a minute! I smell new books--are the Scholastic baggies here?" Well, maybe it wasn't quite like that, but I loved tearing open that bag and feeling and smelling those brand-new, albeit discounted, paper back books. I was very pleased to see that many of the same books that I used to read are all in there. But now they come in box sets, people! Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary (refer to previous blog), The Chronicles of Narnia, they're all there! Plus some new ones that look equally compelling. After I finished thumbing through the catalog and marking my favorites with a pen, I exclaimed, "There are so many books in here that I want!" Ben's reply was, "For you or Mila?" Dang. Was I that obvious? "Uh, for Mila, of course... " (Note to self: make sure Mila goes through said catalog tomorrow and is "gently persuaded" to mark the same books I did.) It's a good thing she is reading now or how else would I justify feeding my Scholastic book habit? And where am I going to get the extra cash? Those 1.95 books add up. Of course, now that I think about it, it might be a lot cheaper to just ransack my mom's house for all my old books, but then A) My mom would get mad at me for not leaving a literary future for my 5-year old brother and B) Hello! They so do not have that new smell.
Now it's your turn to fess up. Does anyone else share this passion? (Please don't let me be the only nerd...) And if so, what books were your favorites as a kid? Or what are your kids' favorites now? And finally, if you wanted to hide $100 in the monthly budget for Scholastic books, how would you do it?
12 comments:
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My mom never let us order books from the catalogue. She said, "Read all the books we have first and then I'll think about it." Well maybe if I got my very own new ones I might have been more enthusiastic about the older ones. I was always jealous of the kids who got their new books. I did however get a new book from my mom from a book fair and it was my favorite. It is called Jillian Jiggs.
Any by they way, I totally know how to hide that $100 into the budget. Every time you go grocery shopping, get $20 cash back on the card and they will never know you took it out or where it went to. They will just think it was for groceries!
I'll never forget the smell of those books. Better than a new box of crayons.
P.S. Hi Pen!
Ahhhh. Eden starts preschool next week, I wonder if they get the schoclastic catalogues.
I love all the books you mentioned. I also loved the "Anastasia Krupnik" series my Lois Lowry and I also remember a book called "The Great Gilly Hopkins" that I got from those orders and really liked. I love children's literature.
The REAL jackpot would be to be a teacher with all the kids ordering scholastic stuff and then you get a bunch for FREE!
I'm so glad you guys all feel the same way!
April-thanks for stopping by! I miss seeing your squinty Skillon eyes!
Betina-I totally remember Anastasia Krupnik--I need to find those!
And Aaron--Kristen was totally speaking hypothetically--she is just really good at problem-solving, right, Kristen? (wink wink)
Oh, I loved those book orders, too! Thanks Hailey... that brought back fun memories! My favorites were Amelia Bedelia and all the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer. Um... as far as saving the $100/mo.... I'll get back to ya as soon as I think of something!
Ahhh, the fine art of family money laundering...
I love Scholastics! I use to teach and I felt so dirty talking up the book orders to the students, not because I wanted my students to read more and love reading (well I did but that wasn't the motivator) so I could make a zillion book order points and be able to order free books! Yeah!!!!! I loved Beverly Cleary and as a teacher I was able to get them all, and Roald Dahl and great picture books, so clever and fun and I could go on and on. My favorite one recently is Don't let the Pigeon drive the bus
Yes, yes, yes!! I do have a 5 year old (the same age as Mila) :) and I still LOVE to order books for him!!! As my kids know---I collect books---don't believe in libraries, because I want to OWN THEM!!!! I have a real problem taking books back...sick...,but then, I was the child that was punished by getting my books taken away...hmmmmmmm
I guess I will be happiest when I am in the nut house and am surrounded by my books...maybe you will bring me the ordering catalog, Hailey?
Ah...I share this addiction. My first-grader has never NOT ordered from the Scholastic book orders, and her nursery school-aged sister is following in those footsteps. I KNOW that a lot of it is because I rarely, if ever, was allowed to order and, man, when the book orders came in, what was I supposed to look at on the bus ride home? Everyone else had their new Madlibs, or Strawberry Shortcake Journal and Smelly Eraser set.
We have that paperback set of the Chronicles of Narnia (which my oldest doesn't like because of the lack of pictures), and our favorites are the Junie B. Jones books. They are so funny.
Well, I am happy to report that I turned in my Scholastic order and did not, in fact, spend $100 (ok, so it was $83) I got quite a good variety, I think, including one book for me (Peter and the Starcatchers--thanks, Beth), one for Ethan (something with dinosaurs), and quite a few for Mila, including the Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, both of which I have been wanting to buy. Jenny, Junie B. Jones is hilarious--I got one of that series as well! Oh , and has anyone ever heard of the Magic Tree House series? I got a set of those, so I hope they're fun.
Become an English teacher - you can talk people into buying the books for you! Seriously, I have nearly $1,000 worth of books in my classroom, very few of which I actually paid for, but ALL of which have my name sticky-labeled to the spine. Anyway, hope my classroom never burns down 'cause those things are not insured.
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