  
There were at three distinct SBS “book clubs” in the 1960s. Tab Books carried a catalog number in the form Tnn, and featured the meatier ‘children’s literature’ such as Black Beauty and Call of the Wild. A second series of larger-format books had ‘TW” catalog numbers, and seemed aimed at younger readers. But the books I remember best were the “TX” series, which by 1968 had run to over 1000 titles. I was never able to buy as many each month as I wanted, but over time I built my own small library of SBS books, many of which survived my childhood along with me (titles in green, below). They are too fragile now to turn over to my own children, and of uncertain appeal to 21st Century school kids immersed in a full-color, go-motion, multi-tasking media world. But Scholastic is still with us, and I find I am a soft touch when those newsprint catalogs come home, or my children ask, “Dad, can I have some money for book fair?”
A Partial List of SBS “TX” Titles, 1958-1970
| Series |
No. |
Author |
Title |
|
TX
|
101
|
MacGregor, Ellen
|
Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars
|
|
TX
|
102
|
Macdonald, Zillah K.
|
Mystery of the Piper’s Ghost
|
|
TX
|
106
|
Smith, Nancy Woollcott
|
The Ghostly Trio
|
|
TX
|
109
|
Household, Geoffrey
|
Mystery of the Spanish Cave
|
|
TX
|
127
|
Kinsey, Elizabeth
|
Sea View Secret
|
|
TX
|
137
|
Silverberg, Robert
|
Revolt on Alpha C
|
|
TX
|
150
|
Cheney, Cora
|
Skeleton Cave
|
|
TX
|
151
|
Wilson, Hazel
|
His Indian Brother
|
|
TX
|
152
|
McSwigan, Marie
|
Snow Treasure
|
|
TX
|
153
|
MacGregor, Ellen
|
Miss Pickerell and the Geiger Counter
|
|
TX
|
154
|
Balch, Glenn
|
White Ruff
|
|
TX
|
155
|
Futrelle, Jacques
|
The Thinking Machine: Adventures of A Mastermind
|
|
TX
|
158
|
Williams, Jay & Abrashkin, Raymond
|
Danny Dunn and the Antigravity Paint
|
|
TX
|
159
|
De Leeuw, Adele
|
Blue Ribbons for Meg
|
|
TX
|
162
|
Brooks, Walter R.
|
Freddy the Detective
|
|
TX
|
163
|
Baum, L. Frank
|
The Wizard of Oz
|
|
TX
|
164
|
Zim, Herbert
|
Codes & Secret Writing
|
|
TX
|
166
|
Hubbard, Freeman
|
The Phantom Brakeman and Other Stories
|
|
TX
|
167
|
Bonner, Mary Graham
|
Mystery of the Haunted Hut
|
|
TX
|
168
|
Lainhauser, Ruth Daggett
|
Patricia’s Secret
|
|
TX
|
169
|
Davidson
|
Seven Voyages of Sinbad
|
|
TX
|
186
|
Seaman, Augusta Hiuell
|
The Mystery of the Old Violin
|
|
TX
|
187
|
Hickok, Lorena A.
|
The Story of Helen Keller
|
|
TX
|
190
|
Stevenson, Robert Louis
|
Treasure Island
|
|
TX
|
212
|
Lauber, Patricia
|
Clarence Goes to Town
|
|
TX
|
215
|
Lindgren, Astrid
|
Pippi Longstocking
|
|
TX
|
218
|
Wallace, Lew
|
Ben-Hur
|
|
TX
|
219
|
Coolidge, Olivia E.
|
Hercules and Other Tales from Greek Myths
|
|
TX
|
220
|
Alcott, Louisa May
|
Little Women (abridged)
|
|
TX
|
221
|
Anderson, C. W.
|
Afraid to Ride
|
|
TX
|
221
|
Anderson, C. W.
|
Afraid to Ride
|
|
TX
|
222
|
Whitney, Phyllis
|
Mystery of the Green Cat
|
|
TX
|
223
|
Crowell, Pers
|
First to Ride
|
|
TX
|
224
|
Vinton, Iris
|
The Story of John Paul Jones
|
|
TX
|
225
|
Meadowcroft, Enid LaMonte
|
Silver for General Washington
|
|
TX
|
226
|
Cleary, Beverly
|
Ellen Tebbits
|
|
TX
|
227
|
Boylston, Helen Dore
|
Clara Barton
|
|
TX
|
230
|
Beim, Lorraine
|
Just Plain Maggie
|
|
TX
|
231
|
Gates, Doris
|
Sensible Kate
|
|
TX
|
232
|
Kramer, Nora (ed)
|
Arrow Book of Ghost Stories
|
|
TX
|
234
|
Twain, Mark
|
Tom Sawyer, Detective
|
|
TX
|
235
|
Lang, Andrew (ed)
|
Tales From the Red Fairy Book
|
|
TX
|
236
|
Seaman, Augusta Hiuell
|
Riddle of the Lonely House
|
|
TX
|
237
|
Woolley, Catherine
|
A Room for Cathy
|
|
TX
|
239
|
Kohler, Julilly H.
|
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
|
|
TX
|
240
|
Kipling, Rudyard
|
The First Jungle Book
|
|
TX
|
246
|
Bennett, Anna Elizabeth
|
Little Witch
|
|
TX
|
247
|
Baker, Rachel
|
First Woman Doctor
|
|
TX
|
252
|
Thorne, Alice
|
The Story of Madame Curie
|
|
TX
|
256
|
Irving, Robert
|
Hurricanes and Twisters
|
|
TX
|
259
|
Lang, Andrew (ed)
|
Tales from the Green Fairy Book
|
|
TX
|
260
|
Wyss, Johann
|
Swiss Family Robinson
|
|
TX
|
261
|
Otis, James
|
Toby Tyler, Or 10 Weeks With a Circus
|
|
TX
|
262
|
De Leeuw, C
|
One Week of Danger
|
|
TX
|
268
|
McGovern, Ann (ed)
|
Summer Daze
|
|
TX
|
269
|
Buck, Pearl S.
|
The Big Wave
|
|
TX
|
270
|
Spyri, Johanna
|
Heidi
|
|
TX
|
278
|
|
Treasury of Christmas Stories
|
|
TX
|
298
|
Beim, Jerrold
|
Trouble After School
|
|
TX
|
303
|
 Williams, Jay & Abrashkin, Raymond
|
Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine
|
|
TX
|
306
|
 Butterworth, Oliver
|
The Enormous Egg
|
|
TX
|
309
|
Seymour, Alta Halverson
|
When the Dikes Broke
|
|
TX
|
312
|
Glines, Lt. Col. Carroll V.
|
Helicopter Rescues
|
|
TX
|
315
|
Orton, Helen Fuller
|
Mystery in the Pirate Oak
|
|
TX
|
330
|
Twain, Mark
|
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
|
|
TX
|
407
|
Halacy, D. S. Jr.
|
Solar Science Projects
|
|
TX
|
440
|
Grimm Brothers
|
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
|
|
TX
|
442
|
Fritz, Jean
|
The Cabin Faced West
|
|
TX
|
448
|
Fisher, Aileen
|
Skip
|
|
TX
|
450
|
Dickens, Charles
|
A Chistmas Carol
|
|
TX
|
471
|
Mason, Miriam E.
|
The Middle Sister
|
|
TX
|
517
|
Gunther, John
|
Jason and the Golden Fleece
|
|
TX
|
535
|
Silverberg, Robert
|
Lost Race of Mars
|
|
TX
|
539
|
Sobol, Donald J.
|
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective
|
|
TX
|
547
|
Gardner, Martin
|
Science Puzzlers
|
|
TX
|
556
|
Meyer, Jerome S.
|
Arithmetricks
|
|
TX
|
561
|
Garfield, James B.
|
Follow My Leader
|
|
TX
|
575
|
Sobol, Donald J.
|
The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk
|
|
TX
|
666
|
Hicks, Clifford B.
|
Alvin’s Secret Code
|
|
TX
|
733
|
Unkelbach, Kurt
|
The Dog in My Life
|
|
TX
|
747
|
Shumsky, Lou and Zena
|
Problem Father
|
|
TX
|
785
|
Coombs, Charles
|
Project Apollo
|
|
TX
|
791
|
 Key, Alexander
|
The Forgotten Door
|
|
TX
|
834
|
Henry, Marguerite
|
Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague
|
|
TX
|
913
|
Cameron, Eleanor
|
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
|
|
TX
|
914
|
Serraullier, Ian
|
The Gorgon’s Head
|
|
TX
|
915
|
Glemser, Bernard
|
Radar Commandos
|
|
TX
|
919
|
 Norton, Andre
|
Gray Magic
|
|
TX
|
945
|
Dodge, Mary Mapes
|
Hans Brinker (abridged)
|
|
TX
|
947
|
Edmonds, I. G.
|
The Case of the Marble Monster
|
|
TX
|
959
|
Dickson, Gordon R.
|
Secret Under the Sea
|
|
TX
|
965
|
Spearing, Judith
|
Ghosts Who Went to School
|
|
TX
|
995
|
Sobol, Donald J.
|
Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues
|
|
TX
|
996
|
Jane, Mary C.
|
Mystery by Moonlight
|
|
TX
|
1065
|
 Del Rey, Lester
|
Tunnel Through Time
|
|
TX
|
1072
|
Hayman, Leroy
|
The Death of Lincoln
|
|
TX
|
1146
|
Henry, Marguerite
|
Misty of Chincoteague
|
|
TX
|
1497
|
Seton, Ernest Thompson
|
King of the Grizzlies
|
|
TX
|
1912
|
Gurney, Gene
|
Flying Aces of World War I
|
|
TX
|
1921
|
Hollander, Zander
|
Strange But True Football Stories
|
|
TX
|
2404
|
Clark, Margaret Goff
|
Mystery Horse
|
|
TX
|
3025
|
Coatsworth, Elizabeth
|
The Werefox
|
|
TX
|
3218
|
Shura, Mary Francis
|
Maggie in the Middle
|
|
Before there was a Waldenbooks in every mall and a Barnes & Noble across from every electronics superstore, before there was an Amazon.com or even an Internet, there was the Scholastic Book Services book club. The monthly four-page SBS newsprint ad sheet and the slim thirty-five-cent paperbacks which would follow a few weeks later were a lifeline for millions of boomer schoolchildren whose curiosity and appetite for reading material couldn’t be satisfied by My Weekly Reader and the back of the Chex cereal boxes. The offerings included both nonfiction and fiction, and if the nonfiction titles tended toward the stodgy (The Story of Madame Curie), there was a generous helping of fantasy and science-fiction for the proto-fen. Robert Silverberg, Andre Norton, Gordon Dickson, and Lester del Rey are among the SF luminaries who contributed at least one title to the line-up. You could visit the Mushroom Planet, follow Miss Pickerell to Mars, invent alongside gadgeteer Danny Dunn, or solve mysteries with Encyclopedia Brown.
