Book memories take flight
- Brett Hiner: A Work in Progress
- June 13, 2025
- 169
As another school year comes to a close and the hope for an adventurous summer arrives, I find myself thinking of the Scholastic book ordering forms of my elementary school days: those multicolored, news-printed style sheets that held all the promise and anticipation of stories as diverse as the latest “Guinness Book of World Records” update to Leroy’s latest adventure in the “Encyclopedia Brown” series.
I get it … this is a curiosity for sure. This is what you are thinking about after 28.5 years of teaching? Well, let me explain.
For those without a television, cellphone or internet connection, there is a new Superman movie coming out next month. Filmed mostly in Cleveland last summer, the evidence thus far suggests it hearkens back to the bright, hopeful tone of the Christopher Reeve films from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s — a tone that is synonymous with the essence of what Superman symbolizes.
That is not to say Henry Cavill’s go-round as the Metropolis Marvel was a bust. I appreciate original “takes” on the nearly 90-year-old character as much as your most loyal of fans, but the darkness that followed him through those films felt more akin to the “Blade Runner” universe than ole Supes.
So across my reading radar, I discovered a “prequel junior novel” to the film — “Superman: Welcome to Metropolis” — was being released in support of the movie, so I hopped on the previously mentioned internet and placed the order.
It arrived the day of release in a box that easily could have held a classroom’s worth of books. Upon opening it, the distinct smell of “new book” wafted through the air — a smell I will always associate with Scholastic book arrival day at Montgomery Elementary — and the book’s cover was an immediate flashback to the cover teases found on those ordering forms that made us so desperately want to find the book title line and cost, always on the side of the sheet, and place a “1” under quantity. The color on those forms was as vibrant as Superman’s suit.
So here I am, thinking of those sheets and the time that has passed, mostly as a professional, but also as an avid proponent of the wonder those newspaper print forms have offered kids since they were first able to place an order back in 1948.
I was always akin to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” series, mostly because I knew I could read those books, always with a different outcome, until the cover and binding would no longer hold the pages together.
And what better way to teach students the (sometimes) consequences of their choices?
I do remember facing the most difficult choice of my life, up to that point, with this scenario (of which the previously mentioned internet reminds me is titled “The Mystery of Chimney Rock”):
After escaping from a haunted house, a pair of ghostly eyes told me to leave and never look back. The choice is: do that and “end the story,” or despite the warning, take “one look back” and turn to page …
What curious, young mind is not going to choose to “look back?”
That choice led to a page with just the word “Ahhhhhhh” spiraling down and ending with “thunk.”
Cue elementary-age nightmares.
Maybe that passage of time also has played tricks on my memory. It seemed in those days, we would place our order forms with our teacher, and then the books took an eternity to arrive. Why was I reading “The Hardy Boys: The Secret of Skull Mountain,” clearly offered on the September/October ordering form, on Valentine’s Day?
To teach patience, perhaps? Something students certainly do not have to encounter today.
Fast forward 40-plus years later and that Superman book I ordered took place on a Monday afternoon and arrived by 5 p.m. the next day … faster than a speeding bullet.
In the interest of transparency, I have no idea how long it takes elementary teachers to get those Scholastic books into the hands of kiddos these days — or even if the orders are still taking place on those color-wondered sheets.
I hope they are.
And I can all but guarantee elementary schools continue to be filled with teachers like my second grade one, Mrs. Marilynn Denholm, who made sure every kid received a book on delivery day, whether they were able to place an order or not.
This generation of kids — preceded by those who lazed under a tree with Clifford; solved mysteries with Nancy, Frank and Joe; hid under a cover with a flashlight while encountering Slappy; or fought alongside Katniss and/or saved the world with Harry — deserves to experience all the miserable anticipation of the book-arrival-waiting-game and the unbound joy of delivery day, as much as we did. And that smell? Well, that is pretty great too.
Sidenote: a favorite couple of episodes of “Seinfeld” of mine involve Kramer coming up with bottling the fragrance of the beach. He meets with the bigwigs at Calvin Klein, who only scoff at him. One season later Jerry is dating a girl who is the model for Calvin Klein’s new fragrance “Ocean” — much to his displeasure, they have stolen Kramer’s idea. If someone out there in the fragrance world wants to bottle the “Scholastic new book” smell, you can steal my idea. All I ask is that for every bottle purchased, a book is delivered to a classroom in need. I think even Kramer would get behind that.
Brett Hiner recently finished his 28th year teaching English/language arts at Wooster High School, where he also serves as yearbook adviser and Drama Club adviser/director. When writing, he enjoys connecting cultural experiences, pop and otherwise to everyday life. He can be emailed at workinprogressWWN@gmail.com.