The Boomer Fan’s Bookcase: Scholastic Books

A nostalgic exercise in list-making by Michael Kube-McDowell

Page Created: 06 April 2005
Page Revised: 21 May 2009


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.

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