[swb]

These are probably both long shots... but any help would be very appreciated.

Firstis a book I lost at summer camp several years ago, I bought it at a used book store and never could remember the name. It was about a black hole that fell into the center of the world, and had to somehow be extracted before it destroyed the world? I believe it had Earth in the title?

Second one was a series of short stories that I had read in grade school. They were in some school book that had a series of stories in them. The short story book itself was part of a series that scaled to each grade if you understand my meaning. Like, there was a grade 4 book, and a grade 5 book, etc. There was one story at the end of each book about some children that space travel or something? It was a series, so it began in the first book, then continued on in the grade 5 book, etc.

All I remember about the short stories was an alien or robot that spoke in a monotone voice. I believe this was when the children started their 'space journey' or perhaps the alien/robot forced them to, I can't recall. I remember the monotone voice because we read it in grade 4 and our teacher made us read it in a montone robotic like voice. Also, I remember them being trapped in cages in one point, held in a zoo basically, and then communicating by holding up one finger on each hand then holding up two fingers (signalling 1 + 1 = 2, to prove they had intelligence).