The Danger and Delight of Scholastic Bookordering
My kids bring home these wonderful, dangerous, delightful things in their backpacks every month. I've loved them ever since I was a kid.
Scholastic Bookorder forms.
They say "Open a world of possible." I think it should be possibility, but I appreciate the brevity.
I get 3 of them. Bookorder forms. Paper that crinkles, a coupon stapled to the front-one for each child in school. Each order is a colorful wonderland holding age appropriate delights.
One month, I spent $50 on the complete collection of Junie B. Jones. That girl is FUNNY. $50 would buy several candy bars, the true representation of a dollar. When I was little 50 cents would buy a candy bar. That was a luxury I took for granted. When people talk about inflation, I see it in chocolate candy bars.
Right now I am looking through the preschool books. I am thinking, How many "David" books are there? I don't know, but I want them all! I want the books where he is in trouble, and where he is stinky, and is that one where he is taking the decorations off the tree? Oh, David. Is Harold still coloring with that purple crayon? He sure loves that thing. And golly, the Pigeon...that pigeon and his hot dogs and bus driving-he is so entertaining. Is the pigeon a he? I think he is a he. I should buy the book and look for the gender specific pronouns. Then I could be sure.
I have a problem.
So, it is in my genetic makeup to buy books, and then hoard them. Buy them. Keep them. Forever. It is just something that my dad gave me. His mother gave it to him. She passed it on to all of her children. My namesake, who I love, has a library full of rotting, spider webby books, unread, dusty books. She probably got the mystic love of books from someone else. I don't know how it started, or how to end it, but somehow, books are sacred in a way that is both inexplicable and completely illogical. That means that it is without reason. There is no logical reason for this thing.
Right now I have a stack of books under my piano, a bookshelf full of books that I don't read. More books downstairs, and a room full of books in my basement. There are also stacks of books under my bed, and I am looking at a scholastic book order, drooling over this Firefly favorites book collection of "caps for Sale," Chicka chicka Boom Boom," and "How do Dinosaurs say Good Night."
On one hand, parent teacher conference day was the best day of my life. Really, it was. I think back on that day, sitting in chairs too small for my knees and listening to my children's teachers with absolute delight. My three daughters are excellent students, completely engaged in their classrooms and the learning experience. They participate, add meaningfully to discussion, and take their comprehension above and beyond expectation. My third grader's flaw is that she uses creative punctuation and has a hard time staying on topic. Hello, my little creative writer! I don't even think of it as a flaw. It is much harder to teach someone to be creative, than teaching a creative person how to use dashes, ellipses, and semi-colons. My first grader contains a knack for the analytical, and has a clean desk, which is AmaZinG. I did not know she was so systematic. She astounds me. My preschooler is learning her letters at a rate that is both alarming and thrilling, practicing her letters on any paper that will sit still. My kids are surrounded by books, they read them throughout the day, and sneak them to bed at night. Their world is bigger than the house we live in because they are exploring different minds, places, pictures with the books. So, books are good right?
How much of a good thing is too much? A shelf of books that nobody reads is really just paper. But worse. If there is no place to keep the things, should I really be buying more?
Maybe just if it is a really good deal, and I don't have that book?
Oh, Scholastic Bookorders, you know I can never say no to you, and you will just keep coming back.
Scholastic Bookorder forms.
They say "Open a world of possible." I think it should be possibility, but I appreciate the brevity.
I get 3 of them. Bookorder forms. Paper that crinkles, a coupon stapled to the front-one for each child in school. Each order is a colorful wonderland holding age appropriate delights.
One month, I spent $50 on the complete collection of Junie B. Jones. That girl is FUNNY. $50 would buy several candy bars, the true representation of a dollar. When I was little 50 cents would buy a candy bar. That was a luxury I took for granted. When people talk about inflation, I see it in chocolate candy bars.
Right now I am looking through the preschool books. I am thinking, How many "David" books are there? I don't know, but I want them all! I want the books where he is in trouble, and where he is stinky, and is that one where he is taking the decorations off the tree? Oh, David. Is Harold still coloring with that purple crayon? He sure loves that thing. And golly, the Pigeon...that pigeon and his hot dogs and bus driving-he is so entertaining. Is the pigeon a he? I think he is a he. I should buy the book and look for the gender specific pronouns. Then I could be sure.
I have a problem.
So, it is in my genetic makeup to buy books, and then hoard them. Buy them. Keep them. Forever. It is just something that my dad gave me. His mother gave it to him. She passed it on to all of her children. My namesake, who I love, has a library full of rotting, spider webby books, unread, dusty books. She probably got the mystic love of books from someone else. I don't know how it started, or how to end it, but somehow, books are sacred in a way that is both inexplicable and completely illogical. That means that it is without reason. There is no logical reason for this thing.
Right now I have a stack of books under my piano, a bookshelf full of books that I don't read. More books downstairs, and a room full of books in my basement. There are also stacks of books under my bed, and I am looking at a scholastic book order, drooling over this Firefly favorites book collection of "caps for Sale," Chicka chicka Boom Boom," and "How do Dinosaurs say Good Night."
On one hand, parent teacher conference day was the best day of my life. Really, it was. I think back on that day, sitting in chairs too small for my knees and listening to my children's teachers with absolute delight. My three daughters are excellent students, completely engaged in their classrooms and the learning experience. They participate, add meaningfully to discussion, and take their comprehension above and beyond expectation. My third grader's flaw is that she uses creative punctuation and has a hard time staying on topic. Hello, my little creative writer! I don't even think of it as a flaw. It is much harder to teach someone to be creative, than teaching a creative person how to use dashes, ellipses, and semi-colons. My first grader contains a knack for the analytical, and has a clean desk, which is AmaZinG. I did not know she was so systematic. She astounds me. My preschooler is learning her letters at a rate that is both alarming and thrilling, practicing her letters on any paper that will sit still. My kids are surrounded by books, they read them throughout the day, and sneak them to bed at night. Their world is bigger than the house we live in because they are exploring different minds, places, pictures with the books. So, books are good right?
How much of a good thing is too much? A shelf of books that nobody reads is really just paper. But worse. If there is no place to keep the things, should I really be buying more?
Maybe just if it is a really good deal, and I don't have that book?
Oh, Scholastic Bookorders, you know I can never say no to you, and you will just keep coming back.
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I love it. I feel the same way. Your paragraph about your amazing children and how their world is bigger than the house you live in because of books might have made me a bit weepy. I just spent $27 on scholastic orders because my kids wanted them so badly, because they're books, and because my kids do a great job at school so why not reward them with a book or two they want soooo bad? I may have a problem too. We constantly have about 120 books checked out from the library. Books are lovely in every way. I even met my husband through working at a library! We shelved children's books together. Library love. Its what eternal families are made of! :)
ReplyDeleteI have a book problem too. I book problem and a music problem. I keep buying more of both. I think there are worse things we could hoard. As always, love reading your blog, Evelyn. And I miss you.
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