We All Stole From The Scholastic Book Fair, Right?
Ah, the Scholastic Book Fair. The event of the year. The place where we all fell in love with reading. The scene of my first crime.
Right up there with the Healthy Harold van, canteen iced coffee, and watching a movie instead of doing PE when it was raining – the Scholastic Book Fair represented the peak of the education system.
Unnamed, mysterious people from the street would show up with wheelie cases of books and stationery with the intention of unburdening innocent children of their sweaty pocket coins. At least, that’s how I remember it.
Upon further research (I’ve Googled it, just now), I have learned that individual schools actually requested those wheelie cases. And the book fair is essentially a fundraiser for the school. Kind of like when the netball kids would run around with Freddo Frog choccie boxes, but bigger.
The funds would essentially buy more books for the school library, or maybe buy those little cakes that the librarians were always scarfing down. Either way, a worthy cause!
My school was overrun by nepo babies and trust fund kids, and their parents ran the place, so I’m pretty confident that they were good on funds and happy to help the school raise them.
But while the rich kids were ransacking the stands, sliding their grubby mitts over the holographic covers of Guinness World Record books, or filling their tote bags with smelly gel pens and silly rubber erasers, the rest of us were committing crimes. And loving every minute of it.
“Book Fair Money” wasn’t something we all had, so it’s nice to see my fellow fee-help, packed lunch, second-hand uniform shop kids finally confessing to being little thieves – to the tune of over 84 million views on TikTok. It’s only right.
For years, I waddled out of the Scholastic Book Fair with pockets packed with stationery. One year, I made it out with a copy of Charlotte’s Web up my shirt. I still have it on my shelf. It’s an heirloom at this point. Might pass it down to the kids I probs won’t have! Just economic decline things. You get it.
I don’t recall ever buying a single Goosebumps book, but I definitely had a lot of them. That’s the thing about a life of crime – once you’ve been in the game for so long, the memories start slipping away. That’s the only way to survive. Or something less dark.
Let me be clear, young me was not robbing sweet nans on the street or hopping fences in the cover of night to pinch your PlayStation. This behaviour was reserved for the Scholastic Book Fair. Something about the environment gave me such a thrill, and I just could not help who I became between the mobile shelves.
You’ll be pleased to know that no books have been booknapped (at my hand) since the early 2000s. I’m now a lover of the book-buying process. In fact, sometimes I’ll buy a book twice – a physical copy, and one for the Kindle.
So, yes, I’ve changed. I’ve learned the error of my ways! But if I ever find myself at a Scholastic Book Fair again, who’s to say what might come over me…
Written by Talecia Vescio, your local Aquarius Junkee Producer & Presenter. Find her on Instagram as @taleciavescio if you want to be friends.