Book Fairs
Once a month, students would receive a thin-papered leaflet that showed off all kinds of awesome books for purchase. Students would then ask their parents for money and give their book orders to the teacher, and their books would come to class a few weeks later.
But then there were book fairs, where Scholastic would showcase a variety of awesome-looking books that students could purchase on the spot. If your mom or dad gave you $10, you were basically the coolest kid with the tallest stack of paperback books. If you could afford to buy hardback copies, then people knew your family was rolling in dough.