I remember getting those catalogs in elementary school, taking them home to the folks and begging for 3-4 titles, and being super-excited about getting my books like 2-3 months later. Does anyone know what I’m talking about?
Do they still do those in school in the age of the Internet, Amazon.com, etc.?
Yes they do.
And the books come a lot faster than they used to, too. Maybe 10 days later?
And as an aside, it’s so sad that consumerism (or stuff=happiness!) is drilled into us at such a young age 
But they were books! Books don’t count as consumption of “stuff”. My parents were very frugal but they did fund choices of books through Scholastic. Loved it.
Oh, wow, blast from the past. I was the one in my class that got to take the box home, I always had so many books.
It sort of sucked that some kids could obviously spend more than others – but there were usually cheaper items in the catalog, and if kids are going to froth at the mouth over buying something, let it be books. It definitely helped turn me into a book lover, and none of my teachers ever pushed anything on us (some even pointed out which books would be available in the library).
Exactly. As tight as things were, we were always able to pick one book from each order. My brother Matt and I would pore over the catalog and organize our picks so that we each ordered something that the other one would want to read as well.
Also, each catalog has at least one book that costs a dollar. I think that’s wonderful – only a dollar! That’s pretty affordable.
You think you folks had it good? My mom was a teacher, so she’d always bring home one of each of the catalogs from all of the grades. So my sister and I had about five times as many choices as most of the other students.
Yeah, times were often tough for us. But they were never so tough that we couldn’t afford books.
Yes, they do. They also have school book fairs where the kids can go and browse among the books.
Part of the proceeds go towards books for the classrooms and school libraries. That’s one definite improvement–no more boring Dick and Jane readers.
The only really happy times I had in school that I can remember with dead certainty were when I brought home the Scholastic book catalog, agonized over it for an hour, and made my selections. I was just thrilled with the cool books my parents bought for me. And my daughter has happy memories of the many book fairs we went to together. In our house, reading had top priority.
And do NOT give me that ‘consumerism is drilled into us at such a young age’. They were BOOKS, duh! Not video games, cell phones, $100 sneakers, or sleazy flannel shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch at $80 a pop. … We didn’t have all that shit when I was in school and I sincerely doubt my parents would have bought it most of it anyway; but by God, we had all the books we wanted to read.
I still have one or two of those books. They are the very oldest things I own.
Books aren’t just entertainment. When a child learns to love reading, that will make learning everything easier. A child that hates reading will have to struggle through schoolwork, not just because of the concepts, but because some or all of the work will be presented in written form. My daughter is dyslexic, and all through elementary and partway through middle school, she struggled with reading and hated it. I dealt with this by getting her tutored…and by reading to her nightly, even when most kids her age were “too old” to be read to. She enjoyed the stories, and came to understand that if she worked on her reading skills then she could have more of the stories each day than I was willing to read aloud. In high school, she turned into a big bookworm, and still is to this day.
Not to be too much the party-pooper here, but the Scholastic catalog now contains quite a lot of non-book junk, much of it of the cheap flash variety with, I suppose, the purpose of enticing kids who wouldn’t otherwise be enticed by plain old books. Both my daughters are avid readers who pore over the catalog the way many of us remember doing, but they often want the sparkly locket that goes with the Secret Diary, or the glittery unicorn toy that goes with the unicorn books, and to these things I say nay. I’m not the only parent who complains about this either; it’s been a topic of discussion at some of our network (PTA-type thing) meetings.
(And, just to cement my party-pooper status, my girls have to pay for their Scholastic purchases out of their own allowance money.)
Anyone who has fond memories of Scholastic should try to check out one of the warehouse sale locations. Our two kids and I have tagged along with my wife (a teacher) on several occasions. It’s like one of their book fairs on steroids…with almost everything half-off or more.
I just bought my preschooler son his first scholastic book fair purchase a few weeks ago. Man, that brought back the memories! He chose one that was at the school so he got to come home with it. It is his first book with little chapters, so we have been reading a chapter or 2 before bedtime (now on the second time through…it is not very long 
)
I was happy to allow him to choose his book, I remember how much I loved that. And yes, there is a bunch of other crap in the catalog, but I just told him to choose a book and he was happy with that.
I’m a teacher and I do the Scholastic Book Club.
The books, which are ordered on the internet, come in less than a week. The whole thing is about the same as you remember.
I get quite a few orders and you can’t get most of the books cheaper elsewhere(new that is).
Oh god, I loved those things! I probably got the entire library of The Baby Sitter’s Club. I also remember ordering To Kill a Mockingbird* when I was in 8th grade as well.
Loved it. I’m glad to hear that they’re still around.
And does anyone remember Book It! from Pizza Hut? They gave you a button, and after each book you read, your teacher gave you a little star sticker to put on it. After you got so many stars, you’d get a free personal pan pizza. I wonder if they still do that.
2 years ago I signed my daughter up for the Scholastic “Puppy Patrol” series. She loved the books, which was unfortunate. Each book was numbered, and we never recieved a few of them. As an example, book 20 arived, when she had not recieved books 18 or 19. I e-mailed Scholastic, and was told that the missing books were out of print. Huh?