As a child, I loved the Scholastic Book Fair. My elementary school’s library was too small to house the Fair books, so we would walk into a classroom full of tables with books stacked as far as my young eyes could see.

Magic awaited me there.

Filling out my list of books, coming back with the money, leaving with an armful of new adventures…one of the most exciting times of the year.

Now I am helping with my daughter’s Scholastic Book Fair, and the magic still lives. Most of the kids take choosing their books very seriously. My daughter did just as I expected and chose about 25 books for her Wish List. Her list, by far, was the longest I have seen. Just like me, she would choose ALL the books if she could. Her face shone with joy as she perused the shelves.

Some kids, though, are the polar opposites. Like the young boy who wandered aimlessly around and wrote down only one book in a lackluster manner. He asked me, “Do you have any sports books?” I didn’t think we did, but I went to look.

I found Basketball Superstars 2016. I found the boy and said, “I don’t know if you like basketball, but this is all we have.” He took it from me and very slowly said, “Basketball is my sport.” As he leafed through the book, he got more and more excited. He exclaimed and yelled out names I presume are basketball stars. His buddies came over and got so into passing the book around and turning the pages that I had to warn them to be careful with it because they hadn’t bought it yet!

The Book Fair has changed since I was a kid—the book prices are definitely higher. But the way the Book Fair makes me feel hasn’t changed. Seeing that boy go from zero to sixty once I found just the right book for him?

Magic.