The day the Troll Book Club catalogs arrived, was close to Christmas level excitment for me.

Posted by ascaffo@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 43 comments

I always order books, magazines and posters. Choose your own ending books were a favorite. Anything with horses or mysteries were close seconds. Bless my mom, she always ordered what I wanted.

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Thechoke23@reddit

Also when you notice the box by the teachers desk that contains all the goodies.

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Recent-Succotash675@reddit

Thank you for that wave of nostalgia.

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ElPanguero@reddit

yeah not so happy memories for some of us who sat there with nothing and just passed the catalogues without looking at them same as if they were a menu for fancy foods I was never going to get to eat

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I have a family member who’s a teacher. They get together with some internet friends and buy a set of books, so each kid gets a book to take home, about every month school is in session. Every kid gets a book! ❤️

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Rejit@reddit

It was the best way to demonstrate to 6th graders the different socioeconomic strata. When the orders showed up, there were those got jack squat and had to sit there looking at the kids who got seven books, the plastic bookmark, and the magic marker set.

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ascaffo@reddit (OP)

Interesting perspective. Thank you. I went to Catholic school. It was a small class. And, each grade, 1st-8th we were all in the same class. Pretty much everyone ordered books. A few did not. They claimed that they did not like to read. They may not have had money. But, I took them at their word. Neither of my brothers ever ordered. BUT, as a teacher now, I would likely see it different.

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ElPanguero@reddit

when my son would get the Scholastic readers I would send moneys to his teachers so that every single child had order for at last two books and some extra goodies, same loot my son would get.

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ElPanguero@reddit

The kid who got all of the NFL team pencils and tried to make me feel bad for my short stub pencil with no eraser left on it and his older sister grabbed all of his pencils and threw them on the roof of the classroom except the SD Charger pencil she gave to me and I broke it and then cried and ran home

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SummerBirdsong@reddit

I loved getting those flyers but I rarely got to order a book...maybe 3 times through all of elementary school.

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Just-History-8373@reddit

Same

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Just-History-8373@reddit

Ugh. I loved just looking at these.

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SnooTigers8871@reddit

Dicey's Song and Dear Mr. Henshaw? I must have ordered from this exact flyer! My students get really excited when I hand out Scholastic flyers still, although only a couple ever order anything.

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DreamTheaterGuy@reddit

I remember reading Dear Mr Henshaw, but I don’t remember what it was about.

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WritingRidingRunner@reddit

I loved Dicey's Song. I am so nostalgic for those moments where filling out this form occupied every brain cell.

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jenorama_CA@reddit

My favorite memory from kindergarten is when we got the first Troll book order of the year, my parents ordered just about every single book in it for me. When the order came, I got my own box all for myself.

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LoserZombie@reddit

Just knowing that a couple of the items with the receipt/order slip hanging out from the pages was super exciting too.

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JoyousZephyr@reddit

I think I was in 3rd grade (1978-ish) and one of the posters to order was a copy of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. I didn't understand what "prints" were, so I thought I was legit getting a Van Gogh for 75¢ or some such price. I pinned that to my bedroom wall and was SO PROUD.

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JoyousZephyr@reddit

I was always so excited when the orders came in! "The House of Windy Hill", "Jenny, Sam, and the Invisible Hildegarde", Mad Libs! So many posters!!

Then I became a teacher and found out how irritating the management of the orders could be. Ugh.

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TeacherLady3@reddit

Yeah, it kills the joy, but it's how I accumulated my vast classroom library.

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flexseal666@reddit

Loved those catalogs. I had the break dancing book! I did not learn to break dance.

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TorrEEG@reddit

OMG! I felt the excitement just seeing this!

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TemporaryPosting@reddit

I remember ordering Apple paperbacks from Scholastic, one memorable one was The Girl with the Silver Eyes.

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dalek_999@reddit

I loved that book! I still have my copy.

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Gisselle441@reddit

I read that book so many times in 5th grade I can still quote it today.

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JadedAd6614@reddit

When I was in school in the 70’s, we had the Scholastic Book Club. My parents would make me save my allowance for them, and a couple times, let me go wild with an order. I remember once, I got a big box of books that was really heavy for a 7 year old to carry! I always went for witch books (usually written by Ruth Chew- I still remember the author’s name!), celebrity stuff of TV tie-ins (usually Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, cartoon, superhero & general tv star books) & Dynamite magazine!

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ascaffo@reddit (OP)

Takers and Returners and the Scary Stories books were favorites.

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ascaffo@reddit (OP)

Ha! I most definitely ordered #11. Still can't draw horses.

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