Jessica Flinchbaugh could hardly contain her excitement when she found a book featuring country/pop music sensation Taylor Smith at the Garden Lakes Elementary School’s Scholastic Book Fair recently.

“I got this book!” said the 7 year old, flipping through pages depicting the singer and she paused at pages showing Swift with Taylor Lautner. Opening the book to the center, she revealed an incerpt with a surprise that would thrill any little girl.

“Nail stickers! She said, marveling at the tiny, colorful stickers. “You can put them on your nails!”

Other elementary school students who attended the book fair mirrored Jessica’s enthusiasm. During Parents Night, which took place on Thursday evening, moms and dads found themselves tugged every which way as their children squealed and waved books and posters in the air. Attracted by colorful books, pencils, erasers and more, it could have been Christmas morning.

“It really supports our Accelerated Reader program,” said school librarian Jana Mathis, adding that the book fair is one of three the school will have this academic year. “It provides incentives and rewards, parties for our students.”

Mathis said that many of the books on sale at the fair are on the AR reading list. The students, she said, can buy a book, read it at home and take the test. Their scores allow them to earn points and then rewards.

“They can read the book at home; they don’t have to wait to check out a book from the library,” Mathis said. “We’re using the newly posted AR program this year so we have access to over 139,000 AR tests. So this way they can buy a book that I may not purchase for the library, but they can purchase the book that they would like and they could look it up at home or they could look it up at school as well.”

Mathis said the fair was a success, and that if students weren’t able to get a book they wanted, she can always order more merchandise.

Jessica’s big sister Cora showed off her selections from the fair. The 10-year-old got a bookmark with a fluffy cat on it and “Ninth Ward” by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Both Cora and Jessica said they enjoyed the book fair coming to their school, and Cora said she could use a book or two for the AR program.

“I haven’t checked it yet, but I have (a book) at my house that they have for AR,” she said.