Author Topic: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!  (Read 3028 times)

E_Monkey

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Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« on: August 05, 2016, 03:55:35 PM »
I started a children's literacy blog. Today's post will probably appeal to Mustachian parents...

Building a Home Library without Spending Thousands
https://actively-reading.squarespace.com/2016/8/5/building-a-home-library-without-spending-thousands

I'm very interested in hearing about other people's strategies for building a home library. We are heavy public library users, but I believe in having books around the house, especially for encouraging young readers.

gooki

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2016, 01:49:08 AM »
Cheapest way I found was to request books when friends or family ask what they should gift our children.

CupcakeGuru

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2016, 05:00:41 AM »
Aside from the library, I have been getting books at www.thriftbooks.com. They are mostly used books and when my kids are done, I either pass them on to others or sell them back to them.

SimplyMarvie

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2016, 02:25:17 PM »
Ask your friends if they have anything they'd like to get rid of when they move? It's how we've gotten all our good books.

(Apart from that, I do a lot of Amazon used shopping... and hit up garage sales when we're home.)

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2016, 02:27:04 PM »
We've gotten a fair number of books as giveaways from the public library, either at the branch or through visits to their public preschool.

iris lily

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2016, 03:15:07 PM »
My Goodwill has childrens books.

E_Monkey

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2016, 07:13:20 PM »
Great ideas, everyone!

CupcakeGuru, I'm going to check out thriftbooks. Iris lily, my Goodwill charges $1-2 a book. I will only pay that much for a specific title we're looking for. How much does your Goodwill charge? At the Goodwill Outlet near my parents, children's books go for 50 cents.

SimplyMarvie, I will try your moving trick. We already have gooki's book wish list down. There are some books, like the giant Richard Scarry ones, that I know will get so much use that they need to be bought new and those ones go onto the wish list for birthdays/holidays. frugalparagon, I wish that my library gave away books for free!

kimmarg

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2016, 07:33:05 PM »
Goodwill has them. I go through there pretty regularly for the next size up clothes and books. Also hand me downs and presents.

iris lily

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2016, 09:03:12 PM »
Now, that said about Goodwill, I am extremely picky about giving good children's books,  and Goodwill has 85% drek. So go there for classics and old stuff, avoid all of the stupid commercial crap,like Disney and etc.

Find a book sale, either library sale or community book sale, for more high quality stuff.

TabbyCat

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2016, 11:02:35 AM »
Try Value Village - their kids books are all $1 each and you get one free for every 4 you buy, so 5 for $4. How good they are depends on the demographic donating to that particular store, but the two closest to me happen to be fantastic. I have probably 30 kids books from there now, collected over the last 6 months, that are in great shape. I get the impression that most kids books are either totally destroyed or are in great shape, not a lot of middle ground.

alme

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2016, 02:58:09 PM »
I buy used books at either a children's consignment sale or from a charitable organization housed in our public library that sells donated used books to benefit the library.

E_Monkey

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2016, 02:53:29 PM »
Good news for all of you Value Village/Savers/Unique fans! I got an email saying that the stores are having a 50% off sale on the 11th - 13th. Excludes sales in HI, CA, NV, AZ, NM, TX, and AR. We have gotten lots of nice-quality books in there.

MBot

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2016, 03:38:46 PM »
Does your basement handle school closings and take donations? Ours takes donations all the time, and duplicates are put out for sale. So lots of older classic titles (love you forever, giving tree) and older kids' classics (little women, black beauty) can be found that way.

And our library sells them 5/$1 - anything super special might be $1 or $2.

It takes some digging, but I've got a lot of classics that way.

Also looking for great illustrations, you can find books for 20 cents where you can tear out 8-12 pages, frame the illustrations in dollar store frames -- and instant gallery wall art for your kids' room!

MommyStache

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Re: Cheap kids' books and where to get them!
« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2016, 08:21:57 PM »
Same as previous posters here. Gifts, thrift stores, and thriftbooks.com.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!