Scholastic Reading Club

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 3:16pm

You young'uns will never know the thrill of ordering your books through a clip-out newsprint publication and receiving your free copy of Dynamite magazine!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 4:07pm

Borstalboy, I was never in the Scholastic Reading Club, I don't think, but I do remember getting the order forms at school for the paperbacks, and I'd talk my dad into letting me order as many as possible. I assume it's the same thing/company? I don't remember Dynamite magazine.

I still have some of the paperbacks. My favorite (which I still have around here somewhere) was The Parent Trap, which has Haley Mills, Maureen O'Hara, and Brian Keith on the cover.

[javero]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 4:31pm

You went way back in time.  I had nearly forgotten about that club. 

[Gorlois]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 7:25pm

I graduated from high school in 2014, and I think we had these when I was in elementary and middle school. Like a mini catalogue of Scholastic books printed on newsprint paper, no? I don't remember them being called "The Scholastic Reading Club," though. But every school I went to had them, and I would beg my parents to order me books which they rarely did. In kindergarten, there was some book with a dolphin I had wanted and somehow I thought my parents had ordered it for me. I was heartbroken when the books arrived and all the other children got their books and I thought mine had been lost or something. Over the years, my parents made up for that. They bought me Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Stinky Cheeseman, and knowing me, probably some Magic Tree House. My little sister's in middle school now and they still hand out these fliers.

We also had Scholastic Book Fairs, and those were fun. For one week the library would be closed and they'd roll in shelves of books to buy instead. There was something exciting about seeing a book store just pop up at your school once a year. There was also a Clifford the Big Red Dog costume that must have come with the Book Fair kit. When I was eighth grade, my best friend was Clifford and I was his handler. Got a free book out of it, too. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, I think.

Updated On: 8/2/15 at 07:25 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/2/15 at 11:28pm

I had the Scholastic Books though it wasn't called Club. We would get a catalogue and choose the books we wanted, sent the money in and in a few weeks get paperbacks. I remember one yer getting Mr Popper's Penguins and Mr Pine's mixed up Signs. I always got six or seven books (as I remember they weren't that expensive). One thing my parents would do was to happily supply us with reading material.

 

[Glittergrrl]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 1:19am

I teach Kindergarten. We still send those Scholastic Book Club order forms home. What's nice about that program is that the teacher earns points for every book sold, so we can get free or discounted materials for our classroom. Kids are reading, teachers get free books for the classrooms-everyone wins.

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 1:24am

I always looked forward to getting those new order forms in grade school. I'd beg my parents to let me order stuff - not books, though. I was more interested in getting the posters they sold.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 5:58am

Oh how I used to live for the days when they would hand the new order forms!

 

 

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 10:51am

I grew up with this. I used to order books every month and was proud of my extensive collection of DYNAMITE and BANANAS magazines.

 

 

...and yes I actually did own these 2 issues!

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 1:47pm

I was just looking at a Flickr account where someone posted a bunch of covers and pages from the books. I saw two that I had as a child in the 1960s:

Mystery of the Green Cat, by Phyllis A. Whitney

The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key

Those images at the links are the covers I had. The Forgotten Door was one of my absolute favorite books when I was a kid. According to IMDb, ITV (British) had a 3-episode series based on the novel. Sadly, according to IMDb trivia, the series is believed to have been lost.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 7:25pm

I remember these. My parents rarely let me order anything.  They did a lot of hand me downs between me and my older sister. I recall in 6th grade spending 95 cents on a book because I had the money in my backpack that day.  

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 8/3/15 at 11:38pm

Marianne2, I hope you didn't skip lunch that day. :)

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/4/15 at 4:09pm

It warms my heart to know that kids are still getting those forms.  They were just the coolest.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/4/15 at 5:26pm

Some of the books they sold were lies.  I bought a biography about Lucille Ball that had a bunch of untruths in it.

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 8/4/15 at 6:25pm

Goth, I'm guessing that's only because they couldn't check the facts at Wikipedia.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/5/15 at 2:15pm

Oh, the memories...

[Gothampc]

Posted: 8/5/15 at 2:19pm

Goth, I'm guessing that's only because they couldn't check the facts at Wikipedia.

I wish I still had that book.  Obviously it was an unauthorized biography.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/5/15 at 2:36pm

I had so many books from those programs (I also recall the Troll Book Club, which a quick Google search tells me was combined with Scholastic Book Club back in 2006). 

My prized book from there was a biography on Debbie Gibson, which I got in either 4th or 5th grade, after seeing the Electric Youth tour back in 1989 or so. 

I also had the complete Bunnicula series that I ordered from them.

[Glittergrrl]

Posted: 8/7/15 at 2:50am

"It warms my heart to know that kids are still getting those forms.  They were just the coolest.

"

Awww. Kids still think the forms are the coolest. Even with their iPads and video games, they get so excited when they receive their books.

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 8/7/15 at 4:12am

"I wish I still had that book.  Obviously it was an unauthorized biography."

 

Have you checked eBay or Amazon sellers?

 

Updated On: 8/7/15 at 04:12 AM