a whiff.

next week we're having a book fair at work, and the displays just arrived.

hello memory lane.

book fairs were so much fun in elementary school! i remember browsing. oh, the browsing! all the books were so perfectly new, with really great illustrations. and parents rarely say no to a kid begging for a new book. that's like denying your kid an extra helping of broccoli.

but i also remember that i was somewhat frivolous when it came to the book fair. you'd think that with my love of literature, i would have been saying things like "mum, can i have a leather-bound copy of war and peace?"

but no. i always wanted the ones that came with little toys. you know the ones, right? something sticky or slimy. a container of gak. maybe a slinky. or a sparkly bookmark! that one is not as frivolous. i need bookmarks. it was always harder to get my parents to buy those for me. sometimes they did. sometimes they didn't. they are so unpredictable.

even though they are selling children's books (although...i did see a crockpot recipe book...that's weird...) i still get to enjoy this book fair just as much as before. i get to write down a "wish list" of books i want for the classroom, and the generous parents might just buy one for us. and then later that day their children will rip it to shreds.