Today is Thursday, November 16, which means not only is it Throwback Thursday, but it's also my 33rd birthday! *thows confetti* *opens presents* *cuts ice cream cake*

For this week's edition of Throwback Thursday, I decided to take a look back at all my blog posts (just over three years' worth!) and share with you some of my favorites.

My Bookprint: Spooky stories, strong ladies and sugary cereal
The one that started it all! When I first began working at Scholastic, I shared the five books that made the biggest impression on me as a reader so far.

Happy National Pizza Month! and Happy (?) Friday the 13th!
I love pizza. I also love Friday the 13th. When these holidays rolled around, I made sure to ask if I could blog about them.

Photo Album: Scholastic at New York Comic Con 2015
Back in 2015, I got to go to New York Comic Con and photograph all our panels and events, which included a giant Goosebumps movie panel with author R.L. Stine and actor Jack Black in the largest hall in the Javits Center! The weekend also included live drawing with Raina Teglemeier, a Hunger Games trivia contest, and panels with Ann M. Martin and Daniel José Older! It was a blast!

How to pull off a Muggle Mob
In the summer of 2016, Scholastic celebrated the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two with a Muggle Mob that closed a portion of Broadway in SoHo! In this post I asked Muggle Mob organizer and Scholastic VIP of Creative Development Billy DiMichele all about it.

I read eight Goosebumps books in one week & here's what I learned
It's no secret around our office that Goosebumps was my FAAAAAAAAVORITE Scholastic series growing up, so when our podcast team asked if I would help interview author R.L. Stine, I JUMPED at the opportunity! In preparation, I read a bunch of classic Goosebumps books, and blogged about my research.

Be Nice to New Jersey Week
Did you know the first full week in July is always Be Nice to New Jersey Week? Me neither! Now I celebrate it faithfully with a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich or a Wawa sub.

For my last Throwback Thursday post, Deimosa and I browsed through various bound volumes containing our old classroom magazines. As I was looking for an article about trick-or-treating in an October 1969 issue, another word immediately caught my eye: Rutgers.

I graduated from Rutgers College at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey back in Spring 2007. Fall 2006 was a major season for our the Scarlett Knights: we won all but two games, beat a highly-ranked team (Louisville) with a last second field goal, and went to a televised Bowl game and won. (This is all the more impressive when you consider how...and I say this kindly with alumna love... not-great we typically were leading up to this season.) I went from never having gone to a college football game ever, to having gone to four, outfitted with the jersey of my favorite player (Brian Leonard).

2006 was probably the biggest year in Rutgers football history since 1869. What happened in 1869? Not only a legendary year for Rutgers, but for college football in general: the very first game ever.

Back on November 6, 1869, Rutgers and Princeton Universities faced off in the first official college football game in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers won, 6-4. This article from Scholastic Newstime's (now Scholastic News) October 27, 1969 issue celebrates the 100th anniversary of that game! (Next Monday marks the 148th anniversary!) Apparently, we faced off against Princeton again, and won... again. R-U-rah, rah!

As you can probably tell just by our last few OOM posts, we really get into the Halloween spirit here at Scholastic. That made me think that we've probably always been quick to embrace the creepy and spooky. So, this week, Deimosa and I ventured down into the Archive to look through our old classroom magazines.

In the card catalog, we checked out the cards under the categories "holidays" and "Halloween" for a few of our magazines. We found some great things!

The Scholastic, October 13, 1923
A one-act Halloween play written for high schoolers 

Scholastic Newstime (now Scholastic News), October 27, 1969
An article about trick-or-treating for UNICEF

Dynamite, Vol. 1, No. 4, October 1977
Fun puzzle games from Count Morbida

Junior Scholastic, Vol. 92, No. 4, October 20, 1988
A graph showing the breakdown of Halloween costumes sales

Junior Scholastic, Vol. 59, No. 7, October 28, 1966
A photo of kids trick-or-treating for UNICEF

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

Did you know? October 4th to 10th is the time to celebrate a totally out of this world holiday: World Space Week!

Founded by the United Nations in 1999, World Space Week is a time for people all over the globe to celebrate science, technology, and how those two things have improved the human condition. The start and end dates of World Space Week were chosen specifically to recognize two important dates in space history:

• October 4, 1957: Launch of the first human-made Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, thus opening the way for space exploration
• October 10, 1967: The signing of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activites of States in the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

We decided to honor this maybe not-as-well-known holiday by looking for space-themed books in the Archive. As Deimosa explained to me, a lot of Book Club's first original books were grounded in nonfiction: books of facts and stats that kids would absorb, memorize and enjoy. (And, joke books!) Here's what we found:

Man's Conquest of Space by James J. Haggerty, 1966

Two astronauts grazed across and endless stretch of black space towards the spinning blue Earth. Suddenly a light winked in the distance. Another spaceship was approaching.

It drew nearer at a stunning speed. The men braced themselves. Swiftly the other craft was upon them. The pilot pressed the trigger and began to shoot... with a movie camera...

This was the meeting of the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 - the first manned rendezvous in orbit, a milestone in our ascent to the stars. Here in an exciting book that tells yoyu all about these spacecraft and the ships that are soon to outstrip them. It takes you to the laboratories where man schemes to conquer space - and to the launching pads where his dreams become reality.

Project Mercury by James J. Haggerty, Jr., 1961

Your ticket to the exploration of explorations - man's first flight into space!

How will it feel to streak through space in a tiny capsule? Will the capsule return to earth safely? Or will it become a "flying coffin"?

Ride with the astronaut that will make history... experience the thrills of blast-off, flight and safe landing. Be part of the team that will open the door to the mysteries of the worlds beyond our atmosphere.

Here's the exciting story of Project Mercury - the men and the space "hardware" that make up our most daring adventure into the unknown.

Environments Out There by Isaac Asimov, 1967

Out there... on Venus and Mars abd giant Jupiter... what's it like?

Is there air to breathe, water to drink? Could a man survive the blistering heat, the bone-chilling cold, the freakish gravity?

Don't just stand there wondering. Do something. Read this book - and you'll be joining Isaac Asimov in an astonishing tour full of surprise discoveries.

First, to the moon. Explore the weird craters, the lunar seas...

Next, the nearer planets and the asteroids. Prode for signs of life on Mars. Set up an observation post on tiny Ceres...

Push on to the satellites of the gas mammoths. For a special treat, make the trip to Mimas and study Saturn's rings...

Tired? Take a rest stop on Pluto...

Then rocket to the stars - in thrilling search of other solar system and other worlds!

The Moon Explorers by Tony Simon, 1970

Here is the story of the project to put a man on the moon, from the beginning to the triumph of Apollo 11.

Here, too, is the story of the upcoming oon voyages, planetary probes, and space stations - the amazing future of man in space.

The First Travel Guide to the Moon: What to Pack, How to Go, and What to See When You Get There by Rhoda Blumberg, 1980

Get ready space travelers. It's time to start planning your trip to the Moon.

In earlier times, Rhoda Blumberg specialized in travel guides to such places as France, Germany, and Bermuda. Now, using that expertise, she is able to guide you into outer space with answers to such practical questions as:

1. What should I pack?
2. How will I go?
3. What should I see when I get there?

Whether soaring for basketballs at the Moon's Sport Center, or travelling to see the faous spot where two pioneer astronauts planted the US flag during the space flights of the 1970s, you'll be glad you have your travel guide along. It rathes the hotels on the near and far side, provides tips for rock collectors, and more.

For the 21st-centure traveler, the Moon is a land of enchantment. Let The First Travel Guide to the Moon take you there.

Communication Satellites: Message Centers in Space by Bernice Kohn, 1975

Today, no one thinks twice about watching a television program broadcast from the other side of the earth. But less than twenty years ago, such instant global communication would have seemed little short of miraculous.

This absorbing book traces the dramatic development of the communications satellites which make worldwide television and telephone transmission possible.

The Mork and Mindy Story by Peggy Herz, 1979

Author's note: Okay so, this is more of a behind-the-scenes of a popular 70s TV show book rather than a book about space, but technically, Mork from Ork was from outer space! So, it stays.

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

I'm getting this Throwback Thursday post in JUST under the wire. See, it's the last day of Read a Romance Month, and our summer Library interns came up with the idea of spotlighting some of our old romance paperbacks in honor of the month-long holiday. I thought that was a *perfect* idea.

Whenever I'm down in the Archives looking for specific titles for this series, Deimosa and I always stumble upon these old vintage paperbacks; their titles usually scream "READ THIS!", somehow. The covers typically feature corny photos or epic/grand illustrations, and the book descriptions on the back are always so dramatic. More often than not they're about a girl being forced to choose between two suitors or someone who's not like her (standard romance fare), but sometimes the plot can take a dark twist (read: violence).

The series I'm featuring here, though, leans more toward the corny side: The Couples series was published by Scholastic in the 1980s. Written by Linda A. Cooney and M.E. Cooper, there were 36 books in this series. With titles such as Bad Love, Sworn Enemies, Broken Hearts, and Coming On Strong, these books were definitely written for teens: the stories feature opposites attracting one another, disapproving parents, love triangles, and more. Below is a small collection of what we found in the Archive:

For a typical plotline of one of these books, check out the description for Couples #2: Fire and Ice, published in 1985:

They're as different as night and day...

He's the red hot DJ of Kennedy High's radio station, at the very pulse of the school's social scene. She's a cool, disciplined ice skater, too busy training to enjoy old friends or school activities. They're the two people least likely to fall in love. Right?

Wrong! Unexpected circumstances throw them together, and Lisa and Peter discover that they may be made for each other after all.

(I would not have guessed the guy on the cover in the pink and black striped polo was the red hot DJ. I guess that's 80s fashion for you.)

Although the fashions have changed, there's a lot in the Couples series that you'll find in teen romances today. I hope you all had a great Read A Romance Month!

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

As part of my role here at Scholastic, I'm one of a few people who tweet from our corporate Twitter account. And to get more specific, sometimes I tweet about an interview or Facebook Live featuring our librarian (and friend to this series) Deimosa. When this happens, I know the exact photo to use.

Responses to the photo are very consistent; people love it–and by extension, they *love* the card catalog!

For part two of this little Throwback Thursday sub-series about old school tools (the first was all about microfilm and microfiche), today we're going to do a deep dive into the Scholastic card catalog!

Our card catalog is physically located in the Scholastic Archive, which is in our building's sub-basement. It serves a function for all our classroom magazines similar to that of a book's index. The entire catalog is divided into drawers, with different magazines each assigned to a drawer. Cards in the catalog are divided by either subject, title, author, or cover. 

• Subject cards: these list everything in a certain publication for one year on a specific subject

• Title cards: these feature one article title per card, and also list their volume and page number
• Author cards: these list all the articles an author wrote in one year, per publication

• Cover cards: created at the end of the year, these cards list all the covers in one year for a magazine

Scholastic librarians had to meticulously make each card by hand, for each year, until the 1990s. Then, with the advent of computers, online databases became popular and new content was digitized instead of being added to the card catalog.

So why do we still have and use the card catalog? A lot of our materials are not digitized yet (meaning all our classroom magazines pre the 1990s), and sometimes, the Library staff receives a request that makes them search through these older materials. Maybe someone was once on a cover of one of our magazines, or they won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award when they were a teen–these are all requests the Library has recieved and turned to the card catalog for!

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

The inspiration for this week's Throwback Thursday post came from some visiting students from China.

Last week, Scholastic hosted 40 students, ages 7–12 in our New York City headquarters from Shanghai. Between a read aloud with Clifford and Klutz activities, our librarian Deimosa took groups of students down to the Archives for a tour. One of the things she showed the students were rolls of microfilm and microfiche sheets.

The students were pretty transfixed by these, and I realized I probably hasn't used a microfilm machine since I was in grammar or middle school. Due to the rise of computers, I assumed these tools were pretty much obsolete and not used often anymore. Deimosa explained to me that in the Scholastic Library, that was most definitely not the case. However, Deimosa also told me that her Library interns hadn't heard of microfilm either, just like the younger students from China! I decided this older technology would be the focus of this week's post.

First, let's make sure everyone knows what we're talking about. Microfilm and microfiche are small photographic images of pages from magazines, newspapers, books and journals. Microfilm is in a reel format, while microfiche are sheets. Both of these formats pre-date computers, and are placed in a special machine which blows up the images on a screen which the user can then scroll though.

Microfilm:

Microfiche:

A drawer full of microfiche:

A microfilm/fiche machine:

So, if we have a copy of almost everything we've ever published in our Archive, AND computers exist, the question is: why do we still have microfilm/fiche? Deimosa explained that if items in the Archive are old and delicate (which a lot of them are!), sometimes the slightest touch can damage them. Even the oils in your hands can damage the paper, no matter how little you actually handle them. Microfilm/fiche allows us to look through these materials without ever having to touch them. (And functionally, both are much easier to flip through to locate specific articles than our actual bound volumes.)

Most of what we have in the Scholastic Archive on microfilm/fiche are our classroom magazines. Deimosa told me we use the microfilm/fiche a lot for magazine anniversaries–like Teacher Magazine (formerly Instructor), which recently celebrated its 125th anniversary. Preparing for this anniversary meant employees had to browse through old magazines that went as far back as 1891! Using microfilm/fiche made that process a lot easier.

I think this will technically be a two-parter Throwback Thursday post. When we return in two weeks, we'll explore another great tool used frequently by our librarians: the card catalog!

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

It's almost a holiday weekend, everyone! Here in the United States, Independence Day is rapidly approaching (I honestly can't believe it's almost July, period!), so I figured this week's Throwback Thursday would end up being pretty patriotic. However, I really can't claim credit for the final idea – it was presented to me by our three Library interns, Chloe, Alex and Zaheer. The idea? Why not make an American flag out of old books in the Archive with red, white, and blue covers!

Sounds super cute, right? I thought so too, so I set time on the calendar for the the four of us to head down there and start pulling books. In preparation, I drew out a quick guide for us to use. (Now, I know that the American flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes, but that would have been a LOT of books.)

Some takeaways? Books come in a WIDE VARIETY of sizes! Seems obvious, but when you're trying to create a uniform shape using books, you really notice the difference. Additionally, books covers are rarely just solid covers, and a book having a certain color spine doesn't necessarily indicate that same color cover. And? It was so much easier to find books with white covers from the 1950s/60s, rather than the 80s/90s. So, here's what we ended up putting together:

Pretty fun, right? If we had more floor space, maybe we could have made it even bigger! We tried to include some classic Scholastic series (Goosebumps, The Baby-sitters Club) along with the older titles; can you spot them?

Here's the list of all the books in our flag:

W.H. Hudson - Green Mansions
Eric Carle & Kazuo Iwamura - Where Are You Going? To See My Friend!
Jackie French Koller - Someday
Carolyn Keene - The Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Lost Locker
Grace Maccarona - Cars! Cars! Cars!
Norman Bridwell - Clifford Va De Viaje
Norman Bridwell - Clifford's Tricks
The Scholastic Dictionary of Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms
Jo Litchfield - Primeros Números
Sandra Markle - Science Dares You! Make Fake Blood
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club: Friends Forever - Claudia Gets Her Guy
Suzanne Collins - Catching Fire
Rafe Martin - The World Before This One
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: Beware, the Snowman
Jovial Bob Stine - Blips! The First Book of Video Game Funnies
Vivian Schurfranz - Renee
Peter Filichia - A Boy's-Eye View of Girls
Malcolm Rose - Formula For Murder
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #13: Aloha, Baby-sitters!
Jane Austen - Emma
Jennifer Baker - To Have and to Hold
Sharon Sherman - The Babysitter's Guide
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: The Barking Ghost
Dan Gutman - The Kid Who Became President
Empires Beyond Europe
Larry Bortstein - Ali
R.L. Stine - Goosebumps: Say Cheese and Die!
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Mystery #31: Mary Anne and the Music Box Secret
Sonia Black and Devra Newberger - 101 Outer Space Jokes
Ann M. Martin - The Kids in Ms. Colman's Class: Class Play
Avi - Perloo the Bold
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #2: Baby-sitters' Summer Vacation
Leonard Gershe - Butterflies Are Free
Small World
Shane Armstrong - I Like Shapes
Christine Loomis - In the Diner
Scholastic Literacy Place: Gammar Resource Book - Grade 1
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Activity Guide
Kate Waters and Madeline Slovenz-Low - Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year
Jeanne Betancourt - Pony Pals: Lost and Found Pony
Marion Garthwaite - Bright Particular Star
Peter Lerangis - Antarctica: Journey to the Pole
Ann M. Martin - The Baby-sitters Club: Friends Forever - Claudia and the Friendship Feud
Famous Stories
Dear America: All the Stars in the Sky - The Santa Fe Trail Diary of Florrie Mark Ryder
Norman Borisoff - You Might Even Like It
A.E. Johnson - A Blues I Can Whistle
K.A. Applegate - Animorphs: The Mutation
George Vecsey - Harlem Globetrotters
Jeanne Betancourt - Pony Pals: The Winning Pony

Happy Throwback Thursday! Earlier this week, Vulture published a great piece on what they've dubbed "the Youth-Comics Explosion." Essentially it's a deep-dive into the current popularity of graphic novels for younger kids that don't feature big-name superheroes. Graphix's reprint of Jeff Smith's Bone series is mentioned as one of the early catalysts of the trend, and current Scholastic author/illustrator Raina Telgelmeier is referred to as the "Elvis Presley" of the genre. (If you have a chance, the entire article is really worth checking out.)

When I went to the Library to meet with Deimosa, she mentioned she saw on Goodreads a conversation between a bunch of people trying to identify a graphic novel from the 1980s. Turns out, it was one of ours: Steven B. Miller's The Midnight Son. Once I saw it, I knew it would be the focus of this week's post.

Published in 1981 by our Four Winds Press imprint, I'm assuming it's one of Scholastic's earliest graphic novels. Now, I know a graphic novel when I see one, but I had Deimosa give me a more technical description. She described it as "sequential art - art that tells the story as much as the words." When you pick up a graphic novel, you can connect the structure developed the works and the art, and combine them to form one coherent story.

I just sat down and read this book, and it ended up being a very trippy and abstract journey. It starts out familiar enough: a space traveler looking for something missing - although he's not entirely sure what it is. He stops on a planet to see if they have it. He meets people who try to help him find the thing he's looking for. Then, just before he leaves the planet, he falls into a metaphysical hero's journey where he crosses a river, battles a dragon, befriends a worm, falls through space, and meets a goddess in the center of the universe. The second half of the book was quite a ride.

The first half of the book very much feels like a traditional graphic novel; the art and dialogue between the characters drives the story forward. However, the second half of the book is Phaedran all alone going deeper inside the planet. During this part of the story, Miller relies more on narration rather than dialogue – although he does differentiate the two through lettering. The art also differs a bit in this second half – there are more full page illustrations rather than panels, along with multiple pages alsmost completely black.

Below are some images from inside the book, and here's the official book jacket description. Did you ever read The Midnight Son?

Stunningly illustrated with over 450 detailed drawings, this is the odyssey of Phaedran, child of light.

Drawn to the planet Fauna by his dream of fulfillment, Phaedran seeks to reclaim a wholeness and happiness now known only in dim memory. Enlisted in his search or the lovely Belisant, Keeper of Lost Beauty, her curmudgeonly old uncle Wyddan the Wise, and Corric, the Faunan king.

Descending into an underground world of darkness, Phaedran must pursue his difficult and dangerous quest alone, defeating a gargantuan, deadly Eel Monster and the terrifying, inhuman Firedrake. And in the shattering climax, Phaedran discovers the final and ultimate mystery: the source of life… the secret of the Midnight Sun.

This is an extraordinary fusion of fantasy and her wicked venture in an illustrated saga that can be read and appreciated on many levels.

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!

Welcome to our Throwback Thursday series! After a short hiatus, we are back and just in time for summer... the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, that is!

The 2017 Challenge launched just last week, and kids have already read over 11 million minutes. This is the 11th year of the Challenge, and this year's theme is "Happy Camper: Take a Reading Adventure." I decided to use that theme as my inspiration, and today Deimosa and I headed down into the Archive to look for some vintage books about summer camp.

As we picked books off the shelves, a theme started to develop: summer camps are great settings for horror stories. Maybe it has to do with kids being away from home, away the safety mom and dad provide? Either way, most of the books we found were horror titles, with a few dramas, and one super cool photo-heavy book about space camp – all stories I would have loved to read as a kid. 

According to the Kids & Family Reading Report: 6th Edition, 58% of kids love or like reading books for fun, and 89% of kids ages 6-17 agree, "My favorite books are the ones that I have picked out myself." What better place to read a scary story you've picked out yourself than under the covers at camp? That sounds perfect to me! (I wasn't super athletic, and would be way more interested in quiet indoor reading time than outdoor activities; are you surprised?)

Check out the books we found, along with their descriptions, below!

Breaking Camp by Steven Kroll (1985)

Ted had been warned on the train to Camp Cherokee that it was no country club. That was OK – he could use a summer of discipline and getting in shape. Besides it couldn't be that tough.

Camp is great at first. Everyone has his own horse to ride, and Ted even gets in with Jack, the most charismatic and powerful guy at Camp Cherokee. But when hazing begins, Ted sees a terrifying side to Jack. His imitation pranks are far more violent and cruel than they should be. Even worse, no one seems to protest – not even the counselors.

So when Ted decides he's going to try and stop the nightmare, he becomes Jack's next victim. And when Jack plays the game – there are no rules.

Camp Trouble by Beverly Keller (1993)

Camp Big Tree is not Phoebe's idea of a fun summer vacation. She sure the lake is filled with sharks and worry she'll get motion sickness from the horseback riding. The food is disgusting – potatoes baked in mud and a gooey Yummoo drink. And the counselors, you have special camp names like birchen sumac, or as warm and friendly as army drill sergeants.

With fancy riding gear instead of blue jeans and dainty flowered sheets instead of a sleeping bag, Phoebe just can't seem to fit in. Even her parents' care package is all wrong – filled with things like methanol-eucalyptus throat lozenges.

And then she has to ride a horse named Flash.

Whoever said things couldn't get any worse?

Werewolves Don't Go to Summer Camp by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thronton Jones (1991)

There's never been a camp director like Mr. Jenkins.

"I think Mr. Jenkins is strange," Howie said.

Melody laughed. "He has more hair than a wolf in winter."

"Maybe he is a wolf," Liza giggled.

"Yeah, a werewolf," Eddie added. "I bet he is one and he comes out at midnight for a snack."

"Werewolves aren't for real," Liza said.

"Are they?"

Nobody thought summer camp would turn into while the wildest adventure!

Camp Fear by Carol Ellis (1993)

The past can't hurt you. It can kill you.

Almost everyone at Camp Silverlake is afraid of something: bugs, snakes, swimming in the lake.

But there's a deeper, darker fear some of the counselor share. The fear that they're terrible secret will be discovered.

For seven years, they've kept it hidden - ever since that summer when they were campers together.

The summer one camper didn't make it home alive.

Now someone is using their secret – and their fears – to play a frightening game a vengeance.

A game that could turn deadly.

Eenie, Meanie, Murphy, NO! by Colleen O'Shaughnessy McKenna (1990)

Colette Murphy knows she is going to love camp. What could be better than all that freedom – freedom from her large and often overwhelming family? What could be better than sharing a cabin with her good friend Sarah and even with her bossy across-the-street neighbor, Marsha? What could be better than being at camp with such cute boys, especially one particular boy, named Tommy?

Then Colette meets big, mean Peally.  Peally claims she had first dibs on the cabin that Colette and her friends got. Peally also claims she has first dibs on Tommy.

Peally is out to get Colette. When Colette discovers that her diary is missing, she knows Peally stole it. But she can't believe that pill he would actually read parts of it aloud to the entire camp!

How can Colette stop her from getting away with her nasty plans? Does Colette have the courage to face a bully and a liar, a true meanie, all by herself?

Goosebumps by R.L. Stine: The Horror at Camp Jellyjam (1995)

Swimming, basketball, archery. King Jellyjam's Sports Camp has it all. Too bad Wendy isn't a total sports freak like her brother, Elliot. But how excited can you get over a game of softball. It's just a game, right? WRONG! Because Camp Jellyjam is no ordinary sports camp. And Wendy's about to find out why. Why the counselors seem a little too happy. A little too obsessed with winning. And why the ground is always rumbling late at night...

Ghost Camp (1996)

The joke's on them! Harry and his brother, Alex, are dying to fit in at Camp Spirit Moon. But the camp has so many weird traditions. Like the goofy camp salute. The odd camp greeting. And the way the old campers love to play jokes on the new campers. Then the jokes start to get really serious. Really creepy. Really scary. First a girl sticks her arm in the campfire. Then a boy jams a pole through his foot. Still, they're just jokes... aren't they?

Welcome to Camp Nightmare (1993)

The food isn't great. The counselors are a little strange. And the camp director, Uncle Al, seems sort of demented. Okay, so Billy can handle all that. But then his fellow campers start to disappear. What's going on? Why won't his parents answer his letters? What's lurking out there after dark? Camp Nightmoon is turning into Camp Nightmare. For real. And Billy might be next...

Space Camp: The Great Adventure for NASA Hopefuls by Anne Baird (1992)

The start of a NASA shuttle flight? The launching of a new satellite? No, the countdown to the most unforgettable space adventure on earth!

Each year, thousands of young people pour into the world famous U.S. Space Camp to find out what it takes, and feels like, to be a NASA-style astronaut. There they undergo a challenging, hands-on training program, based on the one used by NASA.

Space Camp lets you become part of this thrilling experience. A you-are-there-text, +50 dramatic, full-color photographs, follow a group of youngsters through their week-long training session. Learning firsthand from astronauts and other experts, the campers study rocket technology, practice with NASA training equipment that duplicates the weightlessness of outer space, explore a mock up of the proposed space station, and erect a moon base in Space Camp's Rocket Park. Finally, training complete, they don flight suits and blast offer an exciting simulated special mission modeled after actual NASA flights.

Exhilarating and informative, Space Camp is the perfect way to share this out of the world adventure.

Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!