Friends of the Library

Don't miss out on a great hand-stamped jewelry giveaway!  Check out my post from Monday here.

It had been a while.  We always seem to take a break from the library during the summer as our trips into town decrease due to having the summer off from piano lessons.  Yesterday, piano lessons started back up so to the library we went.  Our library has a wonderful used bookstore that is operated by the Friends of the Library.  Usually a retired man or woman operates the store and yesterday was no different.  I am always blessed by a short visit with whoever is manning the store. 

Yesterday I also found a homeschooling friend from our local support group in the store with her son and we enjoyed a good little visit.  Come to think of it, I usually run into at least one other homeschooling family while we are at the library.  

Anyway, I love looking through the books for some great treasures.  I usually find one or two items that I just happened to be looking for.  In fact, my husband asked me once if I prayed to find specific books for sale before I went to the library.  It seemed to him that I always found just what I needed. Yesterday, I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but came away with some great finds anyway.

Yesterday I found these classic titles in very good shape:  Treasure Island, David Copperfield and Sir Lancelot.  Aaron quickly claimed the copy of David Copperfield for his personal library and the other two will be part of Jackson's birthday surprises tomorrow.  Finding good quality used books is a great way to build up your children's personal library.  In fact, most of our home library was created in just this way!

We will be starting our geography studies next week.  This semester we are learning all about Asia.  I found these three books in the middle for almost nothing!  Little Boat Boy was written by a missionary to India.  Japanese Children's Favorite Stories is a large collection of short stories with nice illustrations and the last book is a story book, but will be a great discussion starter regarding the false gods of the Chinese religions.

We are just beginning a  unit on the World Wars and the Great Depression.  Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is one of the books that I wanted Aaron to read.  I have never read it, but will pre-read it first.  I found that the library has an audio version so have already requested that....the older boys can listen to this in their room.

And I can't forget the little guys!  A book by Anno, a beautifully illustrated version of Emily Dickenson's  poems for children, a If You Give a Pig a Party, another book by Munsch that I think Jackson took to bed with him last night and two easy readers.  Some of these books I will pass on to the grandson's.  I was able to get a huge stack of about 30 books recently at our local Goodwill bookstore that I gave to Chase as part of his 4th birthday present.  Gently used books are great gifts and as most of my grandchildren's books were lost in the tornado, I can help build their home library up with great books inexpensively!  All these books that I found yesterday were only $25.  Not bad at all!

Does your local library have a bookstore for used books or have a large book sale every year?  Find out! It's a great source for finding some wonderful books!