WOODBURY — Students at Nonnewaug walked into the library Dec. 3 to find a surprising but oh-so-familiar set up of books lined up in red sections throughout the library. From childhood books, to funky erasers to invisible ink pens were lined up, sparking the nostalgic feeling of being in elementary school again. 

The Scholastic Book Fair ran during the first week of December. Students had the opportunity to visit the book fair during their English periods. 

Jessica McKay, the English department chair at Nonnewaug, helped bring the book fair to Nonnewaug with the hopes of helping student engagement with reading. 

“The English teachers were thinking about how we could re-engage students with the passion of reading,” said McKay. “We kept going back to when we were students in elementary school, and how the Book Fair was this magical event that happened.  We all loved checking out the books.  We thought it would be a fun, nostalgic idea to bring that special time in our lives back.”  

Sophomore Maddox Poythress thought it was a good moment for students to look around and get a break from class. 

“I think it’s something exciting for kids to do, maybe like get out of class for a minute, look at some stuff,” said Poythress. “[It is] just a cool activity.” 

Many students found that many nostalgic memories of the classic scholastic book fairs were returning to their minds. 

“I think it brings back a lot of positive ones,” said Cam Jones, a sophomore at Nonnewaug. “We used to have a lot of book fairs in elementary school, and it’s really happy to see that they keep doing it, for people to be able to buy books.

Junior Mum Alam agrees with Jones. 

“A lot of nostalgic memories because I used to go to the book fair a lot in elementary school, our teacher would bring us down and look at the books,” said Alam. “A lot of this stuff brings back a lot of nostalgia. It’s been several years because of covid and all.”

For Hannah Keating, a sophomore at Nonnewaug, the memories of the little toys that you could purchase as a kid reminds her of her elementary school days. 

“I definitely remember a lot of the color-changing pencils, or those little iPhones are so nostalgic with the little markers in them,” Keating said. “I used to love getting those at the book fair. I have also seen a lot of books here that I read when I was in middle school or elementary school.”