First of all, welcome to Home Base!

Home Base is your destination for your favorite books, characters, games. Express yourself by creating your own comics, writing your own fanfics and RP’s, or creating polls. Meet up with fellow fans and make new friends as you explore islands from the books you love.

Open the Home Base download page HERE.

Choose either Download for Mac or Download for PC depending on your computer.

Once the download finishes, open up the application and login or create a new account!

If you’re on an Apple phone or tablet, click HERE

If you’re on an Android phone or tablet, click HERE

Tons of stuff! You can:

• Play minigames and map games

• Chat with your friends

• Explore different islands, each unique to their story

• Read or listen to book excerpts

• Browse the Newsfeed for writing or creative inspiration

• Write your own RPs or Fics

• Create your own comics with art from some of your favorite series

• Share and cast your vote in polls

You can play on your mobile app or downloaded app in guest mode. To use the web version, save your progress, see the Feed, or participate in any of the multiplayer games, you will need to have an internet connection.

Home Base currently only supports English for all user-generated content like Newsfeed posts and chat messages. We do have some book excerpts in Spanish and are excited to add more languages in the future!

• Mobile: Tap on the screen to move. You can tap on a location to move directly there or hold down and move your finger to walk around.

   

• Web: Use your mouse to move. You can either click on a location to move directly there or click and hold down to walk around.

• Map Icon: This will show you an overview of the island you’re on and key points of interest.

   

• Travel Icon: This will bring up the World Map where you can choose which island to travel to.

   

• Calendar Icon: This is the Events Calendar where you can see all of the upcoming events and multiplayer map games.

   

• Games Icon: This is a list of all the single player minigames you can play in Home Base.

   

• News Icon: This opens up the Newsfeed where you can see the latest and greatest posts and create your own text posts and comics.

   

• Circles Icon: This allows you to open up the circles menu and join and create groups for your friends.

   

• Settings Icon: This allows you to adjust the music and SFX, enable or disable chat, get help, and view the game credits.

   

• Menu: This will bring you back to the main menu.

You can see all the islands we have in Home Base by clicking on the travel icon in the red ribbon menu. This opens the World Map where you can see all the islands Home Base has to offer! 

Click an island and press TRAVEL to fly on over.

Visit fun worlds like Wings of Fire island, Dog Man island, The Bad Guys island, and more!

You can earn tokens by:

• Playing minigames and scoring well enough to earn a star or a medal

• Playing map games

• Completing Daily Goals

• Leveling up

• Earning trophies

• Riding the slide

You level up by earning experience points (XP).

XP can be earned by:

• Playing minigames and scoring well enough to earn a star or a medal

• Playing map games

• Earning trophies

• Riding the slide

All items can be purchased from the Shop on the second level of The Hub or by clicking the Shop icon on the red ribbon menu.

If you’re on a different island, you can purchase items from that book series on that island’s shop.

There are two different kinds of games in Home Base: Minigames and Map Games.

• Minigames are single-player games where you can finesse your skills to earn rewards like tokens and XP. Some minigames have leaderboards, too - try and see if you can get your name up on one of them! 

• Map games are multiplayer games where you work either collaboratively or competitively with other players. When you finish playing a map game, you’ll earn tokens and XP.

You can play a minigame by tapping on the minigame icon (shaped like a game controller) in the menu on the right-hand side. This will pull up the Minigames Menu where you can select a minigame to play.

You can also play a minigame by walking around until you find a minigame portal, which is an entryway that’s swirling and brightly colored. Tap on the portal to start playing that portal’s minigame.

You can check when upcoming map games will take place by looking at the Event Calendar.

To take part in a map game, you can click the “JOIN” button in the Event Calendar when it becomes active, or talk to the NPC that is hosting the map game. You can also join via the notification that pops up before a map game starts.

The Game of the Day is a randomly chosen minigame that grants double rewards (tokens and XP) upon completion. The Game of the Day lasts for 24 hours and is reset to a new minigame at 4AM ET.

There is no limit to the number of times you can play the Game of the Day.

The Newsfeed is Home Base’s creativity space. Here, players are able to express themselves through writing and art. Players can write original stories, roleplays, and fan fictions using text posts. They can also create comics using stickers and background art from the many brands represented in Home Base, as well as upload their own original art. Players can also get inspired by the community by browsing the Newsfeed to read and view posts created by other players.

All content that appears on the Newsfeed has been viewed and approved by our moderation team.

In the chatbox you may notice that there are 2 different tabs you can switch between: Global and Local.

Global chat has chat messages from every island all across Home Base.

Example: When using global chat, if you're on the Hub and your friend is on Wings of Fire island, you will be able to chat with each other.

Local chat is filtered to show you messages from only the people who are on the island you are also on. 

Example: When using local chat, if you're on the Hub and your friend is on Wings of Fire island, you will not be able to chat with each other. 

Why use local chat? It's useful if you want to talk to just the players around you and not everyone in the game! It's also useful for playing in-chat games with your friends like Hide and Seek or role plays without interruption from players on other islands.

All chat messages are run through our filter to ensure your safety.

Write your nickname/preferred name, your pronouns, your favorite book, a quote you love...anything you want to personalize your player profile!

Please remember our community rules! For your signature, especially remember the rules about personal information.

• OK: First name, age, grade, state/country, gender

• Not OK: Full name, school, city/town, birthdate, address, email, phone number, or usernames for outside websites.

Circles allow you to have a group of players connected by some similar interests.

To see circles, tap on the “Circles Board” option in the main menu, the Circles icon in the right menu bar in the game, or tap on the Circle board in the Hub.

In the circles menus, you will be able to create a circle and join other players’ circles

Some Circles are public, which means that anyone can join if there’s space. Others are private and require approval from the creator to join.

You can use a special “Circle Code” to directly join or ask to join a Circle. 

When viewing a Circle that you are in, you can post a short status message, see a filtered version of the Newsfeed with only posts tagged with that Circle, and visit a special private Circle Island that only members of your circle can visit.

A room is a copy of a location in Home Base. When you enter the game, you enter into the first room that has space for players (each room is capped at 100 players, including yourself). In this room, if you filter the chat to only Local Chat, you’ll only see messages from the other players in the same room as you.

Usually there is only one room per location, so you won’t need to worry about this unless a location or event gets very busy.

You change rooms by going into the Settings and clicking on the “Change” button. You can also go to the Travel Map and click on an Island; you’ll see two options: Travel and a small door icon. Click the door icon to choose a different room.

Events in Home Base will take place on Event Island. There are many different ways you can join an event in Home Base:

• Main Menu: When we have an upcoming event, you’ll see a banner on the main menu with information about the event, including the time. When an event starts, you’ll be able to join it directly by tapping on the “JOIN NOW!” button.

   

• Event Notification: If you’re already playing Home Base when an event begins, a notification will appear at the top of your screen with a “JOIN” button that will take you directly to Event Island.

   

• Events Calendar: At the very top of the event calendar, you’ll see a list of any upcoming and live events. Once an event goes live, you’ll be able to tap on the “JOIN” button which will take you directly to Event Island.

   

• World Map: When an event is live, you’ll be able to open the World Map and travel directly there by tapping on the Event Island and tapping on the “TRAVEL” button that appears below the Island.

Event Island is a special space that is only open during events. Once you’re there you can stay as long as you want, but new players will only be able to join during the scheduled time of the event.

First, travel to Event Island at the time of the event. The author, admin, or special guest will be standing on the stage on the island. They will chat and answer questions from the community, so make sure your chat box is enabled in the Settings Menu! Watch the chat to follow along, and don’t be shy about joining in or asking questions! It’s okay to be new.

Each event is different. In some events authors answer questions from readers like a Q&A. In others, there will be fun activities like:

• Costume Parties
• Trivia
• Storytelling
• Poetry Slams
• and more! 

If you have suggestions for events, feel free to let the mods know your ideas!

When we have an event coming up, you’ll be able to see information about it at the top of the Events Calendar on The Hub or in the navigation menu on the side (it’s the calendar icon).

If your screen turns black after traveling to Event Island, refresh the page or close/reopen the app. This is a bug we know about and are working hard to fix, we’re sorry for the annoyance!

Scholastic Summer Reading celebrates reading for fun through Reading Streaks that also help unlock book donations for kids with limited or no access to books. Track “reading streaks,” download a Reading Report, view leaderboards, and read complete, free e-books!

You can check-in by tapping on the “Check-In” button on the Main Menu, tapping on the Reading Streak logo (red book with a white lightning bolt) in the side menu, going to your Player Profile and tapping on the Summer Reading button, or by visiting the Daily Reading Check-In stand in the Summer Reading Zone

By checking-in every day and keeping your reading streak going, you help to donate books to kids with limited or no access to books.

Every time you check-in, you’ll earn some tokens and XP. The longer your Reading Streak, the more tokens and XP you’ll earn for checking in every day. In addition, you’ll earn exclusive items and trophies by maintaining your Reading Streak.

To view the list of items you can earn, just go to the Check-In screen and click on the tab titled “Rewards.”

You can access your Reading Report by going to the Check-In screen and clicking on the tab titled “Reading Report.” From there, you can download your Reading Report which contains a summary of your total number of check-ins, longest Reading Streak, and the number of books you’ve donated.

You can only check-in once per day to track your reading. Once you’ve checked in, you won’t be able to track your reading to update the book you’re reading or add minutes until the next day.

The easiest way is to tap the “free e-books” button on the main menu, in the Summer area. You can also find the access point in the Summer Reading Zone on the hub.

Yes! After Summer Reading ends, there will still be a small Summer Reading zone with a podium at the back of the Hub. You can use that podium to view and download your Reading Report and see a summary of your final stats. If you’re interested in seeing how the Home Base community did as a whole, you’ll also be able to view Leaderboards and the total number of books donated and check-ins.