Anyone remember those Scholastic Book Clubs from grade school?

if it's not the impetus for my book addiction, it's certainly one of the bigger reasons why i such a reader. some of the very first books in my library were all ordered through here: The Rainbow Fish, Marcus Pfister; A Troll Tale: Lucky Rainbow, Jane Jerrard; and who can forget the Little Critter series by Mercer Mayer??

I do remember ordering from those.

Can't remember WHAT though.

bummer.

I definitely don't have them anymore...

Oh gosh, I remember those... couldn't tell you what I'd gotten from them, though. All of it had to be approved by mom, that much I remember, but she was pretty lenient with it. Man, I wish I hadn't left everything when I moved ten years ago! I'd probably still have some of it. :)

Oh! I do remember one. It was Behind the Bedroom Wall - I might even still have it, I don't remember. It was a story about a girl in the Nazi youth league thing (the name for which I shamefully can't remember right now) whose mother was hiding a Jewish woman and her daughter in a hidey hole behind the girl's bedroom wall, hidden by her bureau. I remember really liking that one.

Um...Hitler youth!

I used to spend my allowance on books from those things. Lots of Louis Sachar books, some Calvin and Hobbes collections...I loved getting those little catalogs.

They used the German name for it in the book but it's just completely beyond me right now. I remember really liking it is about all, haha!

I bought the first 30 or so Goosebumps books. Lord knows what became of them. I imagine they were donated somewhere.

Also when HP came out with a 4 book set ( a few years ago, when I was in college). I ordered it through my young cousin's school. Wonderful cheap books. :)

The Rainbow Fish was a little behind my time, but I remember babysitting & reading it & loving it.
Who remembers the book fair & the book catalog from Scholastic with all the books? I loved it.

That's how I got my first copy of Lord of the Rings!

Don't remember exactly what I ordered but I do remember the insane stigma attatched to being the only kid who didn't get a book on delivery day or during a book fair. I'm sure I always ordered SOMETHING as a result.

ha too funny - i do remember that, especially in third grade when my teacher at the time made a huge production out of passing out the orders. i remember some of my friends would not eat for a week, just saving all their lunch money so that they can order books.

see how this habit starts at a young age??

Oh my gosh! I remember how excited I would get when that little red and white box appeared in the classroom.

I'm pretty sure I always picked the books with the most number of pages -- I mean, there was an entire MONTH between book orders! :)

Unfortunately, my Scholastic experience got a little tainted when my 8th grade English teacher began to bribe us with extra credit to order something "educational" out of the catalog. For some reason, what I considered educational (a good novel) clashed with what she thought was educational (calculator games?? come on!)

One more thing--

The Scholastic Book Club in 3rd grade was what kindled my love for Narnia. Plus, it was super exciting because I got 7 books all at once!

Luv2Danse, you're a Narnia fan too? How cool! So am I. My parents got me the full set for one of my birthdays, I forget which. I have the books pretty much memorized. Are you excited about the Prince Caspian movie coming out in May?

Anyhow... on topic... I never heard of this program til now. I was homeschooled all the way through high school so that's why. But if I did know about this... oh man. OH man.

Anyone do the "Book It!" program in school?

I remember the Scholastic Book Fair and "Book It!" program. All those free pizzas...

I was also a big fan of the book orders, fairs, and "Book It!" - I read a lot, so we got a lot of free pizza. I loved getting the book orders because I'd have 6 or 7 new books, as opposed to my many old ones that were read countless times. If only I had such a manageable TBR pile now!

My school had "Book It!" and something called "RIF (Reading is fundamental)." Anyone remember that?

Wow, this brought back memories, and I have a horrible memory! Mostly just a vague remembrance of having books piled on my desk, and my excitement at all those fresh, clean books. I don't think I have any of the books left from those; Mom gave all the Boxcar Children books away and those are really the only ones I can think I would've bought there.

I just loved all my Book It pizzas..........

I now recall getting a coupon for free pizza in 3rd or 4th grade because I was the most proficient reader or something of the sort... wow... =)

I know I read Jane Eyre in 4th grade... I followed it without too much difficulty....

OMG,

My friend and I were just talking about this the other day. I completely forgot about those scholastic things until she reminded me. We never had them once a month though :(.

I remember the boxes would always be delivered sometime in the morning and the teachers refused to give them out until the very end of the day. It used to kill me to see the box just sitting there on the desk ALL day.

I also remember how much I used to love DEAR and USSR times. They were always my favourite times of the day but they were never long enough.

Danielle

Oh man, I had totally forgotten about Book It. I too, fondly remember the many pizzas. I also remember ordering books from the Scholastic book club, although I couldn't for the life of me tell you which books.

to wisewoman:
I LOVE Narnia, although really anything by C.S. Lewis enthralls me. Unfortunately, I haven't read the books in a while, so that's on my to-do list before the movie comes out. It looks like it's going to be a great film -- too bad it doesn't come out for months! It's always fun to find a fellow fan. :)

to dbolahood:
We had DEAR time too! It was usually 20-30 minutes long, but it flew by too quickly for me too! I always wished that we could have an entire day of just DEAR time. I don't remember having USSR time, though. What does it stand for?

Ohh yes, Book It. I hardly ever could fill up all the stars on those dumb little pins -- not because I didn't read enough, but because I just couldn't eat that many personal pan pizzas! I feel like I spent my entire childhood at Pizza Hut eating sausage pizza anyway!

to Luv2danse9
USSR stood for UnSustained Silent Reading

Danielle

I loved the Scholastic book orders! The excitement of choosing books, and then the day when they finally arrived.... I somehow managed to get at least 4 or 5 every time, while most people in the class had one or two, if any.... The one series I particularly remember buying is Animorphs, because I kept ordering them every month even when I had stopped reading them.

The book fairs were fantastic too. It was especially great when we could help set up and have a chance to look at all the books before everyone else :)

P.S., I hate "Join this group to post". It's not even effective: I joined to post, and once I've posted I'm leaving again.

The book fairs were where I bought my first John Grisham book, which was the beginning of my "adult reading," After that I wouldn't read anything under 300 pages for a while.

I remember picking up the Chronicles of Narnia, one by one, in fourth grade. Each month, I sighed a breath of relief that I didn't forget the order form and miss a book. Even then, I wanted my covers to match! I guess I shouldn't be surprised by my methodical cover-hunting for the precise book editions I have here at LT.

Oh, how I miss Scholastic book fairs. They were a big deal at my elementary and middle schools, but then when I went to high school the book fairs they had were barely mentioned: I didn't get to go to the one they had until the last day, because that's when I found out about it.

Before the fairs we used to get those little booklets that show what kind of books they'll be bringing to your school, and I would have to use it to justify why my parents should give me X amount of money for the fair. "But they're going to have this, and this, and that, and don't you want me to read??" Good times. :D

>rainbowdarling

I read Behind the Bedroom Wall, but it was only 5-6 years ago. My mom is an elementary school librarian so she still does the book fair, and brings home interesting books to read before she adds them to her library. When I still lived at home, I benefited greatly from this since I could zip through the books before she took them back. ...thinking back on it, that's how I ended up reading Harry Potter back when it first came out.

I used to LOVE the Scholastic book orders. I was a real bookworm in elementary school and it was such a treat looking through the flyer and ordering the occasional book or two.

I loved them too. My teacher gave us our books at recess, which was a mistake since I was not very good at stopping in the middle of a book. The only time I ever really got in trouble at school was for refusing to stop reading during a math quiz. I actually still have my Book it badge somewhere, I ran across it a couple years ago when I was going through some of my things in storage, in an old jewelry box.
My mom teaches elementary school so those boxes are always at our house now on weekends too. And there's a Scholastic storehouse a few miles from our house, which occasionally has "teacher book sales" so I tag along sometimes and relive the happiness.

I do remember the Scholastic Book Club. I remember the Rainbow Fish too. We had a birthday club thing at the library at school and for your birthday you could donate a book to the library and they would put your name in the book and my birthday book for kindergarden was the Rainbow Fish, haha. I used to love the book club and I always got sooooo exicted about the book fair they would have. I remember we always got out class too for like 30 mins when the book fair was there.

.... and i used to love reading Goosebumps and The Baby Sitters Club, haha

Man, thanks for the flashbacks! I used to love getting those little paper catalogs. I'd always circle half the stuff in there and hope my mom would order something. I remember Book It too. Ah, to be a kid again....

The amount of money my parents shelled out to Scholastic Books is equal to my college tuition. My favorite books were Boxcar Children and Goosebumps. I still have all of my BC books at my parent's house and I will give them to the first child my sister has. :)

god you know i still remember a goosebumps where some character had spider eggs or something laid below their skin, and they hatched and the person had spiders crawling under their skin all in their body so they scratched off their own skin to get them out.. totally creeped me out and the visual still sticks with me sometimes when i see spiders. lol

i love scary stuff!! but i remember ordering happier books from the scholastic fair, does anybody remember Rainbow Goblins?

I was so blessed that my parents encouraged my love of reading and would get between 5 and 10 books each go-around.

Hehe, I remember that my teachers would always wait until the very end of the day and it would drive me up the wall!! who could concentrate on school when there were BOOKS waiting for me?

I always enjoyed the book fairs as well.

*sigh* If I could have some kind of career in the book industry, I could wake up happy each day. :Þ

I remember a few books from my Scholastic days, most notably one called 101 Wacky Facts About Kids. I couldn't wait for that one to come in, and when it finally did I read it over and over. Mind boggling stuff, lol. I think it's still around somewhere.

And I totally remember those Book It coupons for pizza! *sighs sentimentally* Those were the days. I still spend too much time reading, but somehow this doesn't prompt anyone to give me free pizza anymore.

the story where the spider laid eggs under the skin of her cheek was actually the scary stories series.

> 35 Indeed, how on Earth did they expect us to pay attention when we could see those tantalizing boxes sitting by the teacher's desk all day?

I always ordered so many books (having saved up my allowances in waiting then begging my parents for extra money) that one teacher I had always saved mine for last so she could give me the box to carry them home. It was maddening watching the other kids get theirs first, but probably a good plan; I was not a large child and might have dropped them otherwise.

#37 no way really? LOL i can't believe someone knew what i was talking about even though i named the wrong series. amazing.

still creeps me out though.

I'm pretty sure that, by 6th grade, I was the only one ordering from Scholastic. One of my favorite books, Two Moons in August by Martha Brooks, was ordered at random through the program. I also think I got the first few Nightmare Hall books through Scholastic.

I remember Book It and ordering from Scholastic. I used to get so frustrated with my classmates because we never read enough as a group to get the class pizza party at the end of the year. And the order forms for Scholastic--they were printed on newsprint and the form itself was kind of gray. I remember being afraid that what I'd written in would be misread and I wouldn't get what I had wanted. I don't know if they stopped handing them out or if I just wasn't interested in the books they offered anymore, but I don't remember seeing them anymore after seventh grade. But! Our home ec teachers insisted that we read for the first ten minutes of every home ec class. Bliss. And they took points away from you if you didn't read or if you had forgotten to bring a book. A lot of the boys laid off teasing me (in gratitude, I guess) for a few weeks because I would carry around an extra book to slip to them at the beginning of home ec so they wouldn't lose points!