Things I Miss: Book Club & The Jewel Kingdom Series

I love reading. In primary school, my love for reading was not only fuelled by the library, its new releases and its non-fiction section, but by the Scholastic Book Club. I never actually subscribed to anything, but I looked forward to every Friday afternoon after lunch, when we would get newsletters for our parents (…yay!) and the Scholastic Book Club catalogue. I looked forward to getting that catalogue and looking at it in the car on my way home, at least before my parents were able to find a parking spot in the streets surrounding the school and come and fetch me.

The catalogues were filled with photographs of new books, ready for anyone to order, and the last page usually had a subscription for a new club, and the order form itself. The clubs ranged from week to week. They were an opportunity for you to subscribe to receive the books of a new book series, a book per week, or a book per month, I don’t quite remember. One week it might have been the Animorphs series, or Goosebumps, or The Babysitter’s Club, or Pony Pals. Often, the first issue would be a bargain, with some cool official merchandise like a toy or a necklace or a small game or even some stickers. It was a selling point. Every time I saw the items in the catalogues, I would look for the ones that were good value and came with extra goodies.

Unfortunately it was hard for me to convince my mum to subscribe to any of the clubs. She said it was expensive and that I may not like every book that gets delivered every month. She did, however, allow me to buy whatever I wanted, within a reasonable price.

I think that reasonable price was only about $10. Up until I was ten years old, ten dollars was a lot of money, and I didn’t want to break my mother’s wallet, so I always made sure I really wanted something in the catalogue before I asked her if I could please order it.

Reading is something I’ve loved from an early age. I also loved the books that weren’t fiction or novels – I liked puzzle books, educational books, and activity books. I loved seeing things that said “RRP $21.99, now $5.00” because that meant I was getting something worth a lot more than what my mum would be paying for. You could usually get a couple of good books for five dollars, or one nice book with some toys or goodies in it.

In high school, I realised that the Scholastic Book Club wasn’t handed out at school, so I quietly went to the library and spent my lunchtimes hovering the new titles instead.

It became a habit, and my best friend Lilian and I would attempt to read all the new titles as soon as they came in. I think we were allowed to borrow about four or six books. We would both borrow a handful, then swap with each other, and only returned them when we had both read them. Our mission was to read every fiction book in the school library, and I honestly think we got about 80% through.

Maybe I forgot about the Scholastic Book Club, because at least I still had access to new books. But I won’t ever forget that it got me reading one of my favourite childhood book series, The Jewel Kingdom series by Jahnna N. Malcolm:

The Jewel Kingdom, book 13 (Super Special)
The Jewel Kingdom, book 13 (Super Special)
  1. The Ruby Princess Runs Away
  2. The Sapphire Princess Meets a Monster
  3. The Emerald Princess Plays a Trick
  4. The Diamond Princess Saves the Day
  5. The Ruby Princess Sees a Ghost
  6. The Sapphire Princess Hunts for Treasure
  7. The Emerald Princess Finds a Fairy
  8. The Diamond Princess and the Magic Ball
  9. The Ruby Princess and the Baby Dragon
  10. The Sapphire Princess Helps a Mermaid
  11. The Emerald Princess Follows a Unicorn
  12. The Diamond Princess Steps through the Mirror
  13. Super Special #1: The Jewel Princesses and the Missing Crown

The series was, obviously, about four different princesses and their adventures, and what they did to save their kingdom. Demetra the Diamond Princess was my favourite, since she was a lot like me with long hair and loved ice skating, but I loved the other princesses too. They all had their distinct, vibrant personalities, and all cared for each other. It was nice that no book was just about the one princess; it involved the others as well.

I thought there would be more books after the Super Special, since the #1 implied there would be more. The first four books came with a faux ruby, sapphire, emerald and diamond necklace, respectively; the next four books came with a ring; and the four after that came with a bracelet.

The last book came with a multi-coloured bracelet, if I remember correctly. Yeah, alright, it was a selling point. But I still loved the books. They were easy reads, they were thin novels of a hundred or so pages, they were printed with large text, they had some illustrations… but the series was a perfect series for any seven-to-ten year old girl who loved a bit of magic.

Jahnna N. Malcolm let me down when I never saw another Jewel Kingdom novel after the Super Special. I was such a fan. I read every book as soon as it was available. But all good stories come to an end.

And I guess it’s not surprising that I looked in my bookshelf and discovered that I had kept the entire book series, even after I had donated the rest of my childhood books to charity.

The Jewel Kingdom book series
The Jewel Kingdom book series

What was your favourite childhood book series?

Comments on this post

We had Scholastic at our school too! I’m not sure about the clubs but I definitely remember getting the leaflets to order books from, and occasionally my mum would let me order from them.

My favorite childhood book series is A Series of Unfortunate Events, although I was probably older than the target reading age when I did finish off reading them.

In our school, we used to have Scholastic to host and sponsor activities that are related to English and the like. They also held book fairs every year. I never bought any book in any of their book fairs because my money wasn’t enough. Reading them was allowed though, so I spend my recess and lunchtime reading their books.

I never read any series in my childhood but Geronimo Stilton. It was a good read. I got sick of it when I reached ten though.

I loved the Scholastic Book orders! Now my daughter gets them & I still love looking through it. I wish she only spent $10, lol. It’s usually around $60 because she gets 2-3 different order forms each time. Luckily it’s only about 2 times a school year. Today she had the Book Fair at school where it’s a Scholastic items. Just spet $45!!

I remember those Scholastic Book Club catalogues! My parents never let me buy anything from them either because they said it was too expensive, a waste of money, etc.

But I recall using my Christmas money to buy a few books. One of the best books I got from that catalogue was Esperanza Rising. I still have the copy I bought to this day and often, when I need a good read, I turn to it. It’s a pretty sad story but it’s empowering which is probably why I kept it after all these years.

I can’t recall any series that I bought. I vaguely recall a few pink girly books that were part of a series but I can’t remember the title. I did fall in love with the Charlie Bone series as a result of multiple visits to the library. I loved our school library. There was also a series about Indian and Cowboy figures that came to life that I adored. I loved fiction growing up and I wanted to read all of the books in that library…but my adolescent mind couldn’t do it. There were so many books in that library.

Esperanza Rising is such an amazing book. I just read it again recently, as an adult, and it really holds up.

We had the Scholastic Book Club catalogue here in Canada, too! I remember begging my parents to let me get books from it. I remember getting this one series called Animal Ark by Ben M Baglio about pets in vet care, or in the wild, or whatever, but they were always in trouble and needed help. I enjoyed them as a kid, but I can’t read them now. Anything about pets in distress makes me tear up. /argh

There were three other books I got from the catalogue: the first two books in Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” which I still adore. The other is called “Inkheart” by Cornelia Funke and, again, remains one of my favourites (the final book in the trilogy is ~600 pages long and I’m still trying to get through it… two years after starting).

Another book series that has been handed throughout my family was the Redwall books by Brian Jacques. I didn’t grow up on Harry Potter. I grew up on Redwall. Anthropomorphic animals, with mice fighting rats, and badger kings and hare patrol groups? So amazing… And how he described the food, oh my god. I’ve never had cheese with hazelnuts and lavender, but oh do I want to try it.

Loved, loved, loved The Jewel Princesses Series. I totally thought that was the first super special of more books too. Demetra was also my favorite, because diamonds were my birthstone and we were both brunettes.

This is an older post, but I just found it, and I just wanted to say OMG, I miss these books so much too! I remember buying the first one (Ruby Princess Runs Away) JUST because of the ruby necklace, and the got so hooked I bought a lot of the others too. I didn’t have a complete set, unfortunately, but I do remember the bracelet that came with Super Special #1, and that thing was one of my most beloved pieces of jewelry until I accidentally dropped DOWN THE SHOWER DRAIN. I know, right? Our drain had really large holes. I cried for a day.

Now I want to go and reread these books. Roxanne the Ruby Princess was my favourite since she was so headstrong and bold, but Sabrina was also awesome because she always looked so elegant on the book covers. And sapphires are my favourite gemstone.

I think my favourite gemstones are rubies and emeralds, because red is my favourite colour and emerald is my birthstone. I am so thrilled to hear that someone else remembers these books! Roxanne was definitely my second favourite because she was very brave and bold.

That is such a shame about your bracelet! I loved mine to pieces, too.

Awe, I just re-discovered these books on Amazon. I bought a couple for my niece for Christmas and I’m hoping they will get here in time. I remember obsessively reading these, though I don’t remember the storylines. I vividly remember the jewels. I just bought her a gemstone dig kit from national geographic so this will be a great sidekick to that gift and if she loves it I will buy her the rest of the series.