Book Clubs of Yesteryear

How excited I always was when my teacher distributed the new book club fliers each month!  They were printed on the cheapest of newsprint, which made them almost impossible to mark with pencil, but oh, the wonders those leaflets contained.  The listing of books seemed positively endless at the time, but looking back through adult eyes, I am sure the titles only numbered in the twenties.  Most books were priced either 50 or 75 cents.  I would make my initial selections and take the form home for money and most likely a parent's signature.  Our teacher must have dreaded sorting out the returned slips and their attendant coins, but she dutifully submitted our orders.

In a couple of weeks the box would arrive, and our treasures would be distributed.   Two books from book club days stand out in my mind: the red and gray book about Abraham Lincoln, and the book of Baba Yaga stories.  I remember reading and rereading both of those titles many times.  The Abraham Lincoln book was certainly interesting, but I must admit that much of its appeal lay in its being printed with red ink.  I have no idea why it was manufactured in such a way, but the novelty drew me to it time and time again.   

The Baba Yaga stories captured my imagination in a way few other folktales ever did.  I was mesmerized by her house's being built on chicken legs, and I thrilled to her traveling in a mortar and pestle.  Why were the chicken legs so memorable?  Was it because I loved drumsticks as a child?  Nowadays we educators would try to prompt the child reader to "make connections", and this would be termed a "text-to-self connection".  BAH! I enjoyed the image and the stories, plain and simple.  They fired my imagination and made me eager to read even more.  Reveling in a tale well told is reading's own reward.