I can’t be the only one out there…
I’m prepping for an appearance at a local event, billed as a “school book fair for grown-ups.” And can I tell you, the excitement is bringing back all sorts of nostalgia for those magical times in grade school when the teachers would send you home with the Scholastic Book Fair flyer. How many times a year did we have those? Not nearly enough, in my ten-year-old mind. For a kid who LOVED books, it was as if a magic portal opened in the otherwise boring school lobby (or cafeteria) for a day.
I remember taking home the flyer and circling all the books I wanted. (Showing my age here.) It was akin to circling toys in the department store catalog (REALLY showing my age here) before the holidays. The wishlist. Then the day would come when we could actually peruse the books. And not just books – there were the fuzzy-topped pencils. The scented erasers. The tasseled bookmarks. The shiny stickers.
Last year I spoke to a teacher-friend’s first grade class in a nearby town. The kids were writing their autobiographies and my friend told them proudly that she knew a real published author who could come and chat with them. I walked into the lobby, only to find they were holding their book fair.
Cue joy. I wanted to stop and smell the books! I refrained.
This Sunday, I get to live out my dream to live inside a book fair (for a couple hours.) And people-watch all the book lovers as they descend. (Come smell my books. Pick up my stickers. Take a bookmark!) I’m sharing a table with a couple other author friends, which is always fun as well. It’s all for a good cause, as we will be donating 25% of our proceeds from sales that day to the American Cancer Society of Western New York.
While there may not be fuzzy-topped pencils, there will be tons of bookish vendors there, with their creative wares – book-themed jewelry, candles etc – and local booksellers…each one their own traveling curated book fair. I am just as excited to peruse as I am to be signing my own books.
But I’m pretty damn excited about that too.
Because ten-year-old me at the school book fair may have dreamt about her own name on the cover of one of those books she saw at the fair. She may have just been high on those scented eraser fumes, but she’d hoped that the day would come.
If you’re in the Buffalo area, Sunday May 5th – take a stroll down the book fair lane! We’ll be taking over the first floor hallways of the Walden Galleria Mall from 11-4, starting by Sephora and winding around to Best Buy. Big thanks to The Saucy Book Club for orchestrating this book lovers’ dream come true!