Therapy in Picture Books

This post is for my sister—a soon to be licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.  She asked for my opinion on books that deal with difficult subjects in a delicate way... to aid children in making sense of trauma or sadness or difficulty in their lives.

Note that I have NOT read every single one of these books. What I did, was pore over many, many lists, follow many rabbit-trails, read a few message boards, evaluated many reviews and compiled 24 titles that looked to be the most promising. This is certainly not exhaustive—I don't doubt I'm missing some great titles.  But I did go ahead and ignore 90% of what was recommended for therapy books precisely because that's what they were designed to be (e.g. "Mommy and Daddy Dinosaur Got a Divorce" or somesuch). In this scope (as in most others) I seek stories primarily... good messages secondarily.

There are some exceptions, but I do think the art of subtlety in this area is perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when reading books with children. Kids aren't stupid. They see through things that moralize or patronize very quickly.  But again... I have not read all these books personally so maybe a few of them do exactly this... let me know! I am only bookmarking this list for people to peruse who may want to investigate ways to cope with life stressors through the welcoming, non-threatening medium of picture books.  If you know of something that I'm missing here, please comment!!!

1. Rabbityness (non-specific but sudden loss, grief)
2. Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs (death of grandparent, love this book!!!)
3. Horton Hatches the Egg (adoption classic!)
4. Loon Summer (divorce)
5. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (enough said, by the way... the movie was pretty good!)
6. Charlie Anderson (divorce, normalizing step-families)
7. The Quarreling Book (stopping the cycle of anger.  Classic and fun.)
8. My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother (sibling rivalry)
9. A Terrible Thing Happened (an exception to the "story first" rule, because it seems this could be really helpful in helping kids heal from witnessing or experiencing trauma—especially for things that are hard to find the right words for like sexual abuse, etc.)
10. How to Take the Grrrr Out of Anger (another exception. I own this book. My then-8 year old read it... it's now being passed down to his brother. It didn't "cure" anger. But it helped him to remember some strategies for dealing with it in a healthy way.)
11. Always and Forever (death)
12. When They Fight  (parental fighting)
13. My Many Colored Days (for the preschool set to help put names to feelings)
    
14. A Mother for Choco (adoption)
15. The Invisible Boy (teaching empathy/inclusion)
    
16. Spaghetti in A Hot Dog Bun: Having the Courage to Be Who You Are (bullying)
    
17. You've Got Dragons (OCD or anxiety)
18. Now One Foot, Now the Other (coping with physical disability)
19. Michael Rosen's Sad Book (a beautiful book on grief; it doesn't try to 'fix' it. It just owns it and explores it.)
20. Ian's Walk (a sibling with autism book)
21. Those Shoes (wants vs. needs, making sense of poverty)
22. A Day's Work (poverty, honesty, dignity... not just for kids in therapy!!!)
23. If Nathan Were Here (non-specific death of a friend, making peace with that loss)
24. Rudi's Pond (death of friend)
    
    
    
    
    
    

The Jesse Tree in Picture Books, Model 2.0

*Although it's only early November, I'm posting this to give ample time for library holds and purchases to be made.

In my first post on how to observe the Jesse Tree tradition in picture books (which has recently been updated to reflect new finds and indicates must read inclusions), I discussed how our family typically stops the Old Testament readings on December 17th to go into full Antiphon mode. It became clear to me that in the shorter years of Advent (like upcoming 2017) there will be only 22 days of the entire season!  This would mean that if we stopped the stories on the 17th, there'd only be 14 days of readings!  Well, this won't do since the entire story of Salvation needs more than 14 sample stories to cruise up to the Nativity.  So here is a more simple plan for those who prefer it: a 24 day system. You can use this system in the way most 'Advent Calendars' are utilized: beginning on December 1st all the way up to Christmas Eve.  (This year—2014— Advent is 25 days long... so I'm stretching out Moses to three nights; it could easily be 4 or 5 if you want to subtract the less important tales of Balaam or Elijah or Belshazzar.)  So, we'll be doing one story every day and STILL focus ALSO on the O Antiphons beginning on the 17th. For our family, some of these stories needed their own symbols made to be included on our actual tree (which for our family, is an actual tree branch I found, planted in concrete with little wooden ornaments I painted for the symbols). Remember that many of these are out of print but cheap online at amazon or eBay, etc.  And if you can't borrow or purchase them all this year... just start with what you can!  Bring a little bit of color and wonder into your Jesse Tree readings by including a few picture book stories.  Without further ado:

The Jesse Tree in Picture Books, Model 2.0

Dec. 1: CREATION: best all around is Creation.

Dec. 2: ADAM & EVE: Paradise.

Dec. 3: NOAH'S ARK: Noah's Ark.

Dec. 4: THE TOWER OF BABEL: The Tower of Babel.
Dec. 5: THE PROMISE TO ABRAHAM: Sarah Laughs.
Dec. 6: ABRAHAM & ISAAC: nothing notable in the picture book world that I've found! But it's an important piece of the story so stick with a traditional children's Bible book to tell it.
Dec. 7: JACOB & ESAU: Jacob and Esau.
Dec. 8: JOSEPH'S COAT OF MANY COLORS: Joseph (first half) or The Coat of Many Colors.
Dec. 9: JOSEPH AS PHAROAH: Joseph (second half) or Benjamin and the Silver Goblet.
Dec. 10: MOSES IN THE BASKET & THE BURNING BUSH: Moses or Exodus (first parts)
Dec. 11: MOSES PLAGUES, THE RED SEA & 10 COMMANDMENTS: Moses or Exodus (second parts)
Dec. 12: BALAAM'S ASS: The Angel and the Donkey (1st choice) or The Donkey's Story (2nd choice)
Dec. 13: RUTH: The Story Of Ruth.
Dec. 14: SAMUEL'S CALL: The Story of the Call of Samuel.
Dec. 15: THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON: The Wisest Man in the World or from the compilation: Kings and Queens of the Bible.
Dec. 16: DAVID & GOLIATH: David and Goliath.
Dec. 17: THE PROPHET ELIJAH: Elijah and the Fire from Heaven (1st choice) or Elijah and King Ahab (2nd choice).
Dec. 18: QUEEN ESTHER: Queen Esther Saves Her People (1st choice) or The Story of Esther: A Purim Tale.
Dec. 19: JONAH: Jonah and the Whale.
Dec. 20: KING BELSHAZZAR AND THE WRITING ON THE WALL: from Kings and Queens of the Bible.
Dec. 21: DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN: Daniel and the Lord of Lions.
Dec. 22: JOHN THE BAPTIST: nothing notable in the picture book world that I've found! But it's an important piece of the story so stick with a traditional children's Bible book to tell it.
Dec. 23: THE ANNUNCIATION/VISITATION: from Mary or Mary: The Mother of Jesus or The Life of Mary.  All are good.
Dec. 24: THE NATIVITY: many good choices here. Choose your favorite. I like The Nativity: Six Glorious Pop-Up Scenes and The Story of Christmas best.

Tactile Picture Book Project

This is so beautiful. A team of creators making picture books "more than words" to blind children.  Explore some of their projects.

Upcycling Books

Who knew?!  I thought the upcycling book projects were relegated to rogue internet crafters and Pinterest lurkers... but lo and behold there are entire BOOKS published on the topic!






And my wallet loves the fact that the main three that interest me all happen to be at my library! I wonder what new ideas they can offer me. Most of MY books remain intact and I'm not sure if any of these projects are appropriate for children's picture books... but it's worth a look!




Tonight, my two year old threw The Giving Tree into the bathtub and let it soak for 10 minutes before telling me about it.  *Sniffle*... it will not be able to be repurposed and most certainly will need to be replaced when I get the chance.  I do however have 3 or 4 very exciting books waiting in my craft closet wings for projects... maybe these books will provide inspiration... ?

Top 10 Books about Books

Here is a non-typical list of Books About Books.  Most of the lists I've read of this nature have to do primarily with literature selection and include extensive booklists. Well this list isn't entirely like that since I don't have 10 whole books about booklists that I agree with 100% and would call EXCELLENT.  Instead this is simply books about books in the general sense. So read my comments carefully before putting all these books in your shopping cart; they may not be what you are looking for! These are simply my 10 favorite books about some aspect of BiblioZeal and it was quite challenging to narrow this BROAD subject down, once the topic got opened up past simply literature selection lists. So in no particular order:

 Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt.  This is one of the most oft-recommended resources for parents who are looking HOW to choose the best picture books for children...  and for good reason. It was one of my first books specifically about picture books that I ever read and includes detailed lists.

 How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler. Best title ever that succinctly describes what's in it.  All educated people should read this really well-laid-out book on how to make the most of their reading, whether it be for scholarship or delight... especially before going to college!

 Making Handmade Books by Alisa Golden. A highly inspirational book to savor. This is one that is fun to let sitting about for middle-aged children to find and be encouraged in. This discusses all that you need to know in creating your own beautiful masterpieces. Could be an excellent source for gift-making. Writers aren't just published people!

 The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. This is an absolute must-read for all parents in my opinion. It discusses WHY reading aloud is so very important in families and classrooms, examines some pretty startling statistics about what that can do for a child and will completely convict parents to NOT overlook reading aloud to even older children. I like many of the books in Trelease's extended booklist... but don't agree 100% about all his recommendations for quality literature. So get this book for the informational content, not for the lists in the back!

 A Picture Perfect Childhood by Cay Gibson. Now this is a book with which I CAN agree 100% on the lists included! And they are sorted in many useful ways, from great picture books for months of the year, countries of the world, virtues to teach, etc. All this plus many great notes on the goodness and importance of picture books in general make this a must have for Biblio-Zealots.

 How Picture Books Work by Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott. I admit that most of you will want nothing to do with this book. It must of been written for a college course I think because it is pretty technical, thick reading. On picture books of all things! Still, I found it fascinating to explore different concepts of what makes some picture books successfull classics and not others. All the details about the relationship between writer and illustrator and publisher, text to picture placement, font choice... etc. There is so much going on in great picture books that the average reader doesn't usually perceive. I would liken it to a book on cinematography... what makes a movie brilliant is the coherence of scripting, acting, camerawork, soundtrack, and on and on. The trick for successful artists and writers is to make it look simple and beautiful and enjoyable.  This book is interesting for nerds like me to pore over.

 A Landscape With Dragons by Michael O'Brien. This was the first "book about books" I ever read a good 10 years ago or so. It was really great that I found it before I really started my children's library. O'Brien is known for his position on the importance of how Evil and Good need to be treated in literature, movies and pop-culture: everything in its proper place. When deciding on whether a story is good for children, one has to examine how things like magic and dragons and witches are treated. I love the booklists in the back of this book but many of the titles are out-of-print and hard to find. Still, it's a good place to start when trying to define what kinds of things you'll allow your children to be entertained by.

 For the Love of Literature by Maureen Wittman. This is an incredibly useful book and I reference it often as I'm choosing books to supplement our schooling subjects. In all subjects (even math!) , there are great books for children of all ages to learn with and while I can and do make use of online resources that include much of this same information, Wittman's book is a staple on my shelf for how it's organized and for being... well... printed! I hate having to run to the computer every time I want an idea or resource, so this helps remedy that!

 Minders of Make Believe by Leonard Marcus. I found this book fascinating also... it's really a history of where we've come as a culture in the development and publication of children's books. I have learned a LOT by reading this and find it really interesting how many things and authors and ideas we take for granted without knowing from whence they came. Highly recommended for lovers of both children's literature and lovers of history.

 Who Reads What When by Jane Williams. Really this compact little book is probably my favorite for a very straightforward and trustworthy resource on booklists. You can look up ages to start authors or series... or simply read the titles for each age listed. Its great appeal is in its simplicity and I enjoy having this on my shelf!

Little Free Library

It's finished! Last month, I begged my husband to build me a little library to put in our front yard. He has exceeded my expectations... and I am delighted that we are now home to our city's first Free Little Library.

Check out these images from our grand opening!

Spinning Straw into Gold

There is a lovely blog celebrating all things fairy tale and the author, Christie, just published my article on mythology. Visit her piece of cyberspace and enjoy!

Not So Zealous?

My dear friend wrote this:

You need a blog post on devoting time to reading with children! Especially for the non-reader parents who wish for their children to love reading! Really, I find that I have so many things I could be doing in my day... We're non-stop around here, it seems. Grabbing a few books and snuggling on the couch mid afternoon is not as second nature as I wish it were. I parents did this with me exactly zero times. I grew up not enjoying reading at all. There are so many factors at play but I think that's one of them. I just can't seem to want to carve out the time bad enough. I was a lot better at it when we had 1-2 kids. We read much more frequently than we do now. The house is filled with so much chaos. Constantly, it seams... I'm struggling to just through the end of the day.tragically, book/reading time falls way at the bottom of the totem pole.

And to that I would say this:

Be free from the guilt!  If you aren't a natural bibliophile, you aren't a bad parent.  If for whatever reason, you did not grow up doing much reading, you can still impart a beautiful gift to your kids.  If sitting down and reading to a child feels like a chore... that's okay!  Here's a few brief tips for my less than bibliozealous friends:

1. Fake it 'til you make it.  Number one thing you can possibly do is to not let on your displeasure or annoyance to the child!  When I'm not "feeling" like reading to a child, I will say simply "Okay, just pick out one story (and I've no problem vetoing long books if I'm not up for it) for tonight."  But I read it with as much gentleness and interest and love as I can muster.  The last thing we want is for our kids to pick up on stress and let story time become associated with memories of mom being at wit's end.
2. Make time.  You have to.  It's not optional.  Being a good parent does not mean you have to feel warm fuzzies and spend hours in a treehouse together reading all the best books in the world.  But it does mean that you have to read to your child often. I truly believe that.  And I would say a few times a week, if you can't manage daily.  It doesn't have to take more than 10 minutes.  But that investment of time will pay off HUGE dividends in the end.  If it feels like a chore to you, so be it. Add it to the list right after lunch and before laundry. Somehow, make some kind of routine time for it... and remember rule #1.
3. Read books about books.  I'm currently working on a post about the best books about books available.  Reading great literature guides and other things will help you to warm up to books in general and get excited about reading.  Look for that within the month hopefully.
4. Stock up on audio books. While this can't replace a parent who's not interested in reading... it can help tremendously.  The biggest thing is simply having a stock on hand!  Invest in a bunch now and keep them in a place (if they're not mp3 files) where you will see them and remember to use them.
5. Pray.  Seriously.  I think reading is so important that it's worth praying to God that He help you find the time, energy and patience to make it happen.  If a child is raised to be interested in the truth and raised with a healthy appreciation (if not love) for reading... they can always find their way back to the Truth about Him.  The vast majority of fallen-away or lukewarm Christians I know, are non-readers.  Our children will be attacked.  They will be tempted to turn from God.  Reading opens up a whole powerful arsenal they can use to equip their minds with the proper defenses and truths about what nobility is and what goodness is and ultimately, what truth is. 
6. Don't give up!  Don't just be tempted to think, "Well, I'm no good at this.  It's a constant struggle.  I can never make it to the library. There is no time... etc." Keep plugging away at it.  Seeds will be sewn even if you can't see to buds yet...

Sometimes I love the Internet

My mother was a pioneer.  She homeschooled when it was practically illegal.  She didn't have the help of online forums or curriculum reviews or blogs any social networking sites to discuss her options.  God bless her!  She simply got all the books required through Seton's catalogue for our grade levels and set us to work.  There was no question in her mind about which books to read or what education styles to employ.  She simply did the best she could with what was available to her at the time.  In some ways I envy that.  Choice isn't always a great thing.  For some frazzled souls, the myriad of reviews and books and methods out there nowadays can serve to overwhelm one to the point of a paralyzed fear of "What should I do?!?!"  I rely so much on reviews and online discussions and great blog posts that have helped inspire me and shape my educational paradigm.  How does one homeschool without the great Petersen's Bird App or Star Charts on her iPad?!  How does one purchase a book without first consulting the reviews on Amazon.com?!  Is it possible?!  Indeed.  People did it for thousands of years before Al Gore invented the Internet (*snicker*).

What I'm getting at though, is just how great some of our resources are online.  So great.  I mean, if the world ends and we all have to live off the grid back-to-lander style, I'm okay with that.  Bring on the woodstoves and candlelight! But in the meantime, we may as well not fight the total attack on our senses and intelligence and brain waves (good book alert: The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains) and simply act as sieves rather than dams. Let in as much of the good as we can, while filtering out the twaddle and pure evil.  It's not an easy battle.

At any rate, we know there are great free books online.  This is in some ways antithetical to what a good "book" should be... a real, tangible, book smelling friend in you hands.  I don't care how wonderful, economical or efficient the Kindle is, it's not the same thing as a bound book so don't try to convince me it is.  So, I just discovered a great site that maybe is old news to the rest of you but oh well, here it is:  www.booksshouldbefree.com. You can search Google Books and the Baldwin Project and Librivox but I really like how visual this website is.  Take note of their children's book section and download a whole bunch of those goodies for your next road trip or mommy's day off read-alouds or quiet times or meal times (meal times are EXCELLENT for audio books so everyone can enjoy some food while a third party reads...)

An Education in Pictures

As it's not in the scope of this blog to discuss homeschooling philosophies, I wanted to give just a glimpse at our upcoming year in a picture.  Our education is based on good, living books, and that's largely what you see here.  I'm showing you a picture of our spine, not the myriad of supplemental picture and chapter books, copybooks or online resources that reinforce all that we are learning (especially with art, science, music, history, religion and poetry). Plus there's a lot of overlap between these years as we'll be doing much of this reading together.  I also haven't put in the math for my 4th grader yet; can't seem to win any auctions on e-bay for Teaching Textbooks 5!  As it is, while I love designing curriculum, I am becoming more and more of a Charlotte Mason purist. This is mostly for two reasons: when the rubber meets the road, you have to abandon your glorious ideals on a pedestal and do what works for your own family; also, the methods of a true Charlotte Mason education are incompatible with having a diverse plan of attack (e.g. There's no sense in insisting on copywork if you are also forcing the child to do spelling sheets, handwriting workbooks and grammar lessons too.)  So while homeschoolers can certainly have a "Charlotte Mason flavor" to their curriculum... I sort of feel like the "atmosphere, discipline and life" is an all or nothing approach, at least for our purposes. So, just for novelty's sake I present parts of the 2012/2013 year (beginning in August!) for my boys:

Kindergarten:

3rd Grade:

4th Grade:

“Thought breeds thought; children familiar with great thoughts take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body takes to growing; and we must bear in mind that growth, physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the sole end of education.” 

-Charlotte Mason 

Two Free Audiobooks!

Audible.com has a free 30 day trial offer for new customers!  You get to download two free books (and listen to them on your computer, iPhone, iPad, mp3 player, or burn to CD) for free!  If you have no intention of continuing your membership through the website, you can cancel anytime before the 30 days are over; obviously you get to keep the downloaded material too.

I have just taken advantage of this.  I wouldn't recommend using your credits for picture books of course... but for those longer stories that you can't seem to find time for reading.  This is an excellent opportunity to get ready for any summer road tripping you might do!  We are planning on listening to a book that my husband really wanted to read to his sons, but couldn't seem to find the time or energy after a long day at his physically demanding job.  So it's the perfect thing to listen to in the car as a family: Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers.

Our second free book was agony to choose; I mean you can get the ENTIRE Beatrix Potter collection for free!  There are so many good ones out there.  For me, it was a toss up between Swallows and Amazons, The Paddington Bear Collection, Just So Stories, The Princess and Curdie, Redwall, or the sorely tempting Thomas Sowell books.  (Those however, aren't particularly family oriented so I thought it better to aim for road-reading... err... listening).  Just So Stories won!  It'll be nice to hear the narrator do the animal noises much better than I could anyway...

So take advantage of this excellent offer!  The great part is that as you are canceling your membership, they offer you deep discounts to stay active.  I think the $7.50/month (one free book a month) for three months is an excellent deal... but ultimately, I just milked the system and got my free books and cancelled.  But if you can afford it and can't seem to make time for longer reading with the kids... it would be a great program to subscribe to. Let me know which books YOU got for free!

More Catholic Stories

My original listmania list "Beautiful Stories for the Catholic Child: Only the Best" was limited to only 40 books.  Since then, I've compiled a couple dozen other titles for parents seeking to find picture books that support the faith.

Beautiful Stories for the Catholic Child: Only the Best 2.

Mythology and More

Here is a bright post from a bright young lady who I am happy to know personally. Seems I can't get enough of the fairy tale topic lately. In her post, she references Psyche and Pandora; incidentally, I'm currently on a manhunt for excellent illustrated myths. I have read several and I currently have several more ordered at the local library to preview before giving glowing recommendations. But in the meantime, I did create an Amazon listmania list on this very topic. Most of the books on that list, I've read and loved... a few still need to be seen in person yet. But nothing at the outset leads me to believe there would be anything objectionable in them. So I created the list as a running reminder for myself to check them out and to guide others in finding excellent mythological picture books.

I expect to get more into the topic of mythology on here at a later time.

"For Mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness." 

                                                     -Thomas Bullfinch

Bargain Book Roundup!

If you don't have an Amazon Prime account, I don't blame you... it's close to $80.  But if you DO have one, you'll know as I do, that it is a wonderful, wonderful gem!  My husband bought one for my birthday this year, and I can't tell you how much I love just buying a single item and having it at my door two days later.  No more waiting until I have $25 worth of purchases to get free, slow shipping. It's great... plus the free streaming of certain videos has been nice too.  We've watched a few documentaries on there now and have many seasons of How Its Made to get through!

But I digress. I bring it up because it's excellent when you find a bargain priced book on Amazon and you can just purchase it easily!  Occasionally, I take the time to peruse their bargain barrels; it's a lot to wade through and so I usually narrow it down to just biographies, non-fiction, folk and fairy tales... above 4 star ratings.  It's still a lot to wade through.  But I'll save you some time and give you a current list of books I happened to uncover this week.  *Disclaimer: I've not read every single title here!*  But they "looked" good to me based on titles and illustrations and reviews. So you may already be familiar with them or want to splurge a few dollars to see if they may be jewels or not.  Bargain books are an excellent way to purchase books as gifts since they are brand new. They are a great place to find off-season holiday book and they also help fill in gaps for unit studies. The books listed below are all hardcover and under $8. The price is right... and quantities are (sometimes extremely) limited! I've bought a few of these titles myself this week (who needs to buy shoes, when you can have books instead?!)

Thrifting Tips

Building your home library take time, patience, thoughtfulness and money. I can't help you with time or patience but I do hope to help you with thoughtfulness (See this post for more on that.) and I have a couple tips to help you not break the bank. "Yeah, yeah, yeah..." you say. "Go to thrift stores; we already know that.". Oh good! I'm glad you know that. But allow me to spare you some frustration with thrift store shopping with these tips:

1. Find the right kind of store. Every store is bound to have the occasional good find.  But the best stores are the ones you can go to and have reliably good luck. I regularly bypass at least four more local stores to get to my gold mine in the next town over. For some reason, it collects fantastic books on a regular basis. What this means is that the people who donate to this Goodwill are fairly well off, fairly typical in having only a couple kids, and fairly ignorant to the glories of good literature... So it gets dumped. See, I benefit greatly from families who aren't open to having many children; I get their good clothes and books in excellent condition for my brood! The other thing is that I've noticed that many people like to give lovely books to children as gifts. But either the spoilt dears don't care for books or they their parents don't because I have found many remarkable books in near mint condition with inscriptions on the inside dated only a year or three ago! A pity. But their tremendous blindness to greatness is to my benefit so I won't complain too much.
2. The other component of a right kind of store is one that has a flat pricing structure. Many stores charge a flat price for children's books and this is where you can save a lot of money! You don't have to be AS selective because if you aren't totally familiar with a book, it really only costs you 79 cents to preview! Unfortunately, you can't rely on the franchise name of a store to guarantee same costs.  The Goodwill in my hometown prices children's books the same as regular books and even puts more expensive prices on ones that look popular or to be in especially great condition.  Gag.  You are looking for a store with a staff that doesn't know any better when it comes to children's literature.
3. When you get to the kiddy book section, depending on the size of your selection, you may or may not have time to do a title-by-title scan of each book.  You sometimes need to employ razor-quick econo-shopping mode.  It looks like this:  First look at all the hardback books closely.  This is where the better titles usually live.  This is where you'll find your treasures.  I often don't even scan the paperbacks anymore because their lifespan can be quite short in a large family.  I DO scan the paperbacks more closely if the pickins are slim in the hardbacks and I'm feeling desperate to score SOMETHING.  And if your home library isn't well established yet, you may want to give the paperbacks a closer look.  After all, having a flimsy copy of Blueberries for Sal is better than having no copy.
4. You can't always judge a book by its cover or its title... but they sure do tell a lot sometimes.  You can continue your quick-shopping mode by training your eye to gloss over things in the generic vein like "Franklin Goes to School" and training it to catch things that sound like they might be a fairy tale or folklore or of course, one of the millions of titles you've memorized that you want to own.  The title The Man Who Kept House is one that caught me on my latest trip, a book that I knew nothing about until then. With time, you'll be wise as a serpent in your selections and quite efficient at sorting titles out.
5. Lastly, get reading some books about books!  The more you become familiar with the rich titles out there, the more equipped you are to sift through the piles of junky books to find treasures.  There are lots of books about books out there.  I can trust the booklists of a few out there.  A good starting point would be Honey for a Child's Heart. Excellent other ones include A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child's Mind (though unfortunately, many of his recommendations are out of print), and A Picture Perfect Childhood which is FULL of recommendations. And there's also For the Love of Literature which is a great tool if you are a fan of learning through LIVING books. There are other good books about books... but this should get you started...

Don't forget about other great ways to build up your library:

1. Consider giving books as gifts to your children.  This will help you to feel better about shucking out $15 for a brand new book if you were going to spend that money on something anyway. Children see that its worthwhile, and you have a gift taken care of.  Incidentally, I have an amazon list on books that I think make excellent gifts.  I've not updated it in a while... I ought to do that presently.  Also make it known to family members that you'd like to build up your children's library and would welcome Christmas and birthday gifts to them to reflect that. (This comes with the caveat that they may not have good taste in literature... I would say direct them to your amazon wish list, but I personally find it kind of tacky when people personally "direct" others to the gifts they want.
2. Check out your library sales!  I've gotten so many gems this way and they are usually the cheapest possible option.  Our local library "Friends of the Library" charges something like 50 cents for children's books!  Sometimes, you find something and you can swear you hear an Alleluia chorus ringing in the heavens as your hand trembles in finding a jewel.  I have found an entire collection of fantastic kids books on Ancient Egypt which I used this entire year for school.  My real piece of glory however was when I paid pennies for three... count them THREE David Mac Caulay books.  HARDBACK!  I got Mosque, Underground and Mill to accompany the Pyramid I already owned. What a find! If you don't know Macaulay... get to know him posthaste. He is a brilliant author and illustrator on so many excellent historical, architectural books.  Turns out there are a few excellent PBS documentaries featuring him on youtube: Castle, Roman City, Pyramid, Mill Times and Cathedral.  All would be a superb supplement to studies of those eras.
   
3. Elementary schools often just TOSS books into the trash.  They make room for new library books buy getting rid of old ones... lucky for us, so many old ones are the better ones anyway! If your child goes to a public or private school, talk to whosever in charge of the library and ask what their policy is on discarded books; you just might be able to work out an arrangement!
4. Garage sales and rummage sales are historically where you can find the CHEAPEST children's books.  Most people selling books will tell you that kid's books are a dime or quarter... maybe fifty cents for a hardback.  These are people who are looking to get rid of stuff, whose children have outgrown certain books or who just don't know what they've got.  My best garage sale score to this day was finding the entire Little House on the Prairie series for $2.  I've also bought the entire Anne of Green Gables series, the Narnia collection, the E.B. White collection and (my favorite) the Great Brain collection at garage sales.  I just realized that other than the Lord of the Rings books, all my 'collections' have been acquired at garage sales!
5. Don't forget about online swapping sites like Paperbackswap or Bookmooch.  I wrote a bit more about how this works here. You have to have a bit of luck and a lot of patience... but it can pay off!
6. Sniff out family members or friends whose children have grown up.  They are often ready and willing to part with their kiddy books if they know they are going to a good home!

Remember above all of this, that it is much more beneficial to have a small collection of quality books than a large collection of riff-raff. Don't expect it to happen overnight!  But books are an investment indeed.  We don't think much of spending $15-$20 on a single visit to a fast food restaurant.  But that same amount of money could buy a brand new treasure that will last much, much longer than those french fries.  Be smart, be patient, and happy thrifting!

Eye Candy

Spend 5 minutes drooling through these awesome, creative, inspiring ways to store and contain and display books.  What a feast for the eyes...