A catalog of cheap (cheapish) reprints of popular
children's and young adult books.
Sort of like a Book of the Month Club, but for kids. The
thing about the Scholastic Books Club is that a) it's all
direct to customer sales so it's cheaper than retail
and b) the person in charge of the
book club (usually the teacher) gets bonus points
based on the number of sales which can be redeemed for
free stuff (more books for the classroom!)
See
http://teacher.scholastic.com/bookclubs/index.htm
When I was in grammar school, every couple of weeks, I'd be
given a new Scholastic Books Club catalog to take home. I
would be so excited because it meant that I would
soon be getting new books! Yay! I would take it home and
carefully
go over the cheap paper catalog with my parents, checking off the
books that I wanted (Encyclopedia Brown for me and Beverly Cleary
or something for my little sister.) Then I would get my money (mostly
nickels and dimes it seemed) and count out the dollar or
two per book and put it in a little, yellow envelope
which I would guard it with my life.
Even then I loved books because, to me, a book was like a
time machine
and space ship all rolled into one; it could take me anywhere.
And a couple of weeks later,
when the books would finally come, I would be so happy -- it'd
be like Christmas in July. Ahh. Simple pleasures.