Children's Books: Building Up a Collection

If there is one thing that I can't buy enough of, it's books! If I were to ever "win it big," I can guarantee you that I would have one room in my house designated for nothing but a gorgeously well-stocked library! (As my friend, Liz, and I were saying this week, everyone has their shopping obsession. This is mine!) Now since we've been on a budget, I check all my books out at the library. But I still buy some for Nathan. He really gets his favorites and they only let you renew them once. He's also still a little rough with some and I'd hate to ruin a library copy. Here are the ways I've built up a really nice collection for him...for not very much!

New Books
1) Sign-up for Barnes & Noble and Borders e-newsletters. Quite often, they will send out coupons for 15% any one item and on occasion a 40% off coupon!

2) Amazon- For awhile now, they've been running a 4-for-3 sale on books, magazine and home items. Usually the books can put you over the $25 limit to get free shipping.

3) Promotions- Several companies offer promotions for getting free books with the right purchase requirements. Kellogg's/Target had this one going on that ended in September.

4) Dollar Stores / Target $1 bins - Some of Nathan's favorite books came from Target's Dollar Bins!

5) Make sure and put them on your children's Birthday/Christmas lists!!

Used Books
1) Goodwill/Salvation Army/Thrift Stores - I cannot get over how many books these stores have. And you can buy them for usually $.25 - $.59. Sign-up for Goodwill's Club, and get 5% off purchases of $20 or more.

2) Used Children's Stores - They tend to be a little pricier here but places like Once Upon a Child or Children's Orchard usually has books for $1.50 - $4.

3) Libraries - Several libraries sell books for mere donations. A lot of libraries will also have yearly sales where you can really rake in the deals!

4) eBay - A good portion of our collection came from eBay. I made the mistake of buying a couple individually until I discovered book "lots." These are fabulous. Many sellers will put a collection of 10-30 books together and sell them in a "lot." I ended up getting a huge collection of 30+ Touch and Feel books and Clifford books for about $18! All in great condition!!

5) Regular Used Book Stores or Book Swaps - One of the book swap sites I've heard of is PaperBackSwap. I've never tried it yet, though.

I personally think books are great presents. They open a whole new world for children and they are known for speeding up their talking skills, too! Whether you buy them new/used or check them out at your library, make sure you get your kids into books at a young age so they'll grow to love them more and more!

Happy Reading!