Kid & Baby Sale

We were able to visit a huge kid sale yesterday held at our church.  Surprise, surprise, I bought a couple of books!  And a few other things for the baby:

The stuffed frog was impossible to resist for $1!  He's so cute!

I also bought "Daddy and Me," a Lift-The-Flap Book by Karen Katz.  Yay, adding another to our series!  One of the flaps is missing, but the baby would have done that anyway so no biggie.

"Is Your Mama a Llama?" by Deborah Guarino and illustrated by Steven Kellogg.  I actually have this book in paperback, but I love to have board books too - more reading to the baby.  The other day Daddy let the baby play with a couple of Dr. Seuss books (paper pages) and he started to rip the pages.  He's 15 months old and not ready for paper pages yet!

And, last but certainly not least I bought "Another Monster at the End of This Book" by Jon Stone and illustrated by Michael Smollin.  I have this book in Little Golden Book format, as well as the iPhone version on my iPod.  And now we have it in board book style.  Nice!

I also bought a pair of sandals for the baby for summer, and a cute Curious George stuffed toy that my son loves. 

Hurray for baby sales!  Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Saver's Haul - Edition II

I signed up for a Saver's Club card online this week.  The site said that when you sign up and pick up your card you are eligible for 25% off your entire order.  Sign me up any day for a sweet deal like that!

Also, every Thursday is 25% off everything!  Savers, you are my new favorite for during-the-week shopping!

Here are my purchases:

Four hardcover books -

1.  "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell - an Educator Classic Library book, complete and unabridged from 1969.  The book is larger than most novels, but has various definitions in the margins, making it perfect for school-age kids.  Love it!

2.  "The Great Ice Ship Bear - Eighty-Nine Years in Polar Seas" by Polly Burroughs.  This book is from 1970 and previously belonged to the Benson Elementary Library in Benson Arizona.

3.  "Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Nervous Lion" with text by Nick West and illustrated by Harry Kane.  This is such a cool looking book with the fancy inside covers.  It was copyrighted in 1971 and includes illustrations every few pages.

4.  "The Trumpet of the Swan" by E.B. White.  It's a book club edition but copyrighted in 1970 and it's by E.B. White.  'Nuff said. 

For kids books I found these:

1.  "Yummy Yummy!  Food for my Tummy!" by Sam Lloyd and illustrated by none other than Jack Tickle!!  Of course, I LOVE the pictures! and the book is in good shape. 

2.  "Whose Tail Is This?" a lift-a-flap book.  I was so excited to find this in good condition because a few months back I had found "Whose Nose Is This?" in brand new condition at a Goodwill and my son loves it!  I have high hopes for this book!

3.  "Elmer's Friends" by David McKee.  A cute little board book with a story about a patchwork elephant.  Simple and perfect for a 15-month-old!

4.  "Baby Animals on the Farm" - a First Little Golden Book.  I suspect that the First Little Golden Books are going to be harder to find since they probably got played with pretty roughly by the little ones these books were intended for.  This one is in perfect shape so I'm thrilled to have found it. 

This is a great find for a mid-week shopping trip!  Have you found any great values in books?

How Fast Can You Read?

Take this test to find out how fast you can read...I scored at 305 words per minute, above average for adults, but below 11th graders.  Clearly, I need work, I better start reading more.  How did you do?

Source: Staples eReader Department

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Savers Haul

I mentioned previously that we had gone to Savers, and took a picture with my digital camera.  I usually take pictures with my iPod, but wanted to try the camera to see how the picture would come out:

Pretty good picture, eh?   I also took the picture with sunlight and took a much closer picture, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Here's what I got for a little over $7 -

Board books - "Dumpy and His Pals" by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton, illustrated by Tony Walton.  Yes, Julie Andrews from "The Sound of Music" is one of the authors of this book!  This is a cute and simple story about several trucks in the neighborhood and how they help us.

"Where Is Baby's Belly Button?" by Karen Katz. We actually already had this lift the flap book but the baby had torn out all the little flaps in the book, so this one is in nice good condition and for $.69 we can start all over.

"Counting Kisses" by Karen Katz.  I enjoy the books by Karen Katz, they are cute and my son has enjoyed all the ones we've got so far.

Little Golden Books - "The Nutcracker," "Just A Bad Day," "Richard Scarry's Best Little Word Book Ever!," "Alvin and the Chipmunks - Alvin's Daydreams," and "Sesame Street Puppy Love."

I also found two Dr. Seuss books - "Dr. Seuss's ABC" and "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish."

Another of my favorite series of books includes "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff.  These are great little cause and effect books.

The last book is called "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear" by Don and Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood.  Sometimes I pick up a book with such pretty pictures inside, not too many words, and I just buy it for the pretty-ness of it.  Some children's books are just works of art and I enjoy having them in my home.  I think that it will not only instill a love of reading, but maybe also a love of art in my children.

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Finding Books!

Wow this has been a crazy weekend!  I hope you'll forgive me for not posting much in the last couple of days.  I was busy last week and over the weekend visiting several spots for some good books!

First I'll talk about my Target finds!  I love visiting the Dollar section at Target, am I alone in this?  Gosh, they always have something good, and many times it's a book or two, especially for my 15 month old.  Here's what I found last week:

"Two by Two An Animal Tale" is a cute little board book just illustrating the animals boarding Noah's Ark.  It's super simple but cute.  Next is the "Opposites!" book featuring Elmo.  This is like a little bath time book, and since my son loves Elmo so much, I couldn't resist.  They were each $1.  Score!

Next I took a little trip to Goodwill, and found a couple of items I didn't think could wait until Saturday's half-price sale:

I bought "Six by Seuss," a hardcover book featuring six Dr. Seuss books in all.  It includes "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins," "Horton Hatches the Egg," "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and "The Lorax."  What a great find, and I bought it for $6.99, which seemed like a lot to me.  I could gamble and wait until the half-price sale, but I wasn't sure the book would still be there, so I grabbed it.  I also grabbed "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss, as well as a very nice copy of "The Polar Express."  At $12 all together, it was a teeny bit pricey for Goodwill, but I'm happy with my purchase!


Finally, on Saturday the Goodwill 50% sale came!  Here's my loot:

I found so many books Saturday, and I ended up putting about half of them away.  (boo~)  It's a good thing because I could easily fill up a cart and go to town and put us out of house and home.  A little restraint is a good thing (thank you Dear Husband for restraining me!)

We got some nice children's books:  "Trains" is a nice large board book that my son will enjoy turning the pages.  "Where is My Pumpkin" is a lift-the-flap book by Karen Katz.  We have "Where is Baby's Belly Button" and my son loves it, and this little book was in perfect shape, so in the cart it went.  I also bought five Little Golden Books:  "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Pooh - The Sweetest Christmas," "Frosty the Snowman," "My Little Golden Book About God," and "Big Bird's Ticklish Christmas." 

Here's a close-up of the paperback books I bought:

I bought nice copies of "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck, "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, "MaryAnne" by Daphne DuMaurier, "The Tale of Despereaux" by Kate DiCamillo, and three Madeleine L'Engle books: "A Wrinkle in Time," "A Wind in the Door," and "A Swiftly Tilting Planet."  I had heard of "A Wrinkle in Time,"  but wasn't aware there was a series!  Now I only need the last two books in the series, "Many Waters" and "An Acceptable Time."  How very cool to learn new things about authors I already knew!

I stopped at Savers also this week, but since I took the picture with my digital camera instead of my iPod, I will have to write another post about that. 

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Gifts from a Special Aunt!

My sister-in-law bought us these pretty new Little Golden Books for the baby.  The set includes all the classics - "Peter Pan," "The Jungle Book," "Alice in Wonderland," "Pinocchio," "Cindarella," "Dumbo," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," and "Bambi."  Thanks so much sweet Aunt!  They are so pretty and I can't wait to read them to the baby when he is old enough to know not to rip the pages. 

The same Aunt also gave us these books:

The Very Silly Sheep and The Very Messy Monkey are such cute pop-up books by Jack Tickle.  

I found The Very Silly Shark on sale a Barnes & Noble one day last year for maybe $6.  These books are so cute and I can't wait to collect the entire set!  My son LOVES them, but we keep them hidden away for very special occasions, since they are pop-up books.  He is only 15 months old, so he can't read them on his own yet.

Still on my wishlist from this series are The Very Bouncy Bear, The Very Busy Bee, The Very Lazy Lion, The Very Dizzy Dinosaur, The Very Happy Hen, The Very Merry Mice, and The Very Clever Crocodile.

I think I can safely say that I've become a Jack Tickle fan!  I found a page with all his books on BookFinder.

Thanks so much to a very special Aunt for such precious gifts!  Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Redefining Research

Here's an interesting infographic from Open-site.org showing how college and high school students do their research now.  While the graphic is interesting and informative, what saddens me most is the statement that the amount of books is declining by 12% annually.  This makes me want to do my part to keep books alive, by purchasing as many as I can afford to!



Via: Open-Site.org

Great article from Pen Pals & Picture Books

I recently found this blog and fell in love with it!  The authors write book reviews and tell about their activities on this blog.  They wrote this great article about how to find great kid's/children's books at great prices.  Check out the link below, and the rest of the blog.  Very nice job ladies!

http://www.penpalsandpicturebooks.com/2012/03/good-ways-to-find-great-books.html

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

More Book Shopping

I was able to visit two more bookshops last week and find some great bargains.  My sister and I went to a used bookstore in Phoenix and bought some Dr. Seuss books for her son's 7th birthday this weekend.  (Sorry I said he was going to be 6 previously, how did he get so old?!!)

I bought 4 books for him, and since I had a credit at the store from turning in books before, it only cost me $9.00.  Here's what I got!

These are the medium versions of the books, all in good shape.  Nice haul, eh?

Then on Saturday, I took another look at the book liquidator store we had been to earlier in the week.  I picked up a few more items for just $3.00.

I bought an older (from the 1970's) Little Golden Book called "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" in good condition.  Also a hardcover version of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" and a paperback version of "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck.  I also bought a large hardcover book about Princess Diana.  My mom and Grandma always had Diana books and I LOVED leafing through them.  Diana was so beautiful. 

Thanks for sharing in my finds, I'll post more soon!  Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Books - How They Work

This is such a great interpretation of what books can do for us.  Normally I wouldn't post something with the language present, but I feel like it really exemplifies what happens when we read books. (Click the picture to see the full poster.)  Enjoy!

Three Thrift/Book Stores...

The other day my sister and I hit up three different stores looking at books.  She is throwing a Dr. Seuss birthday party for her son who will be 6, so she is trying to find all the Dr. Seuss books she can for not a lot of money.  I felt "obliged" to come along to "help" her find books, and who knows what I would find in the process!

Savers was first.  I didn't realize the amount of books they have there since I actually hadn't been to Savers in years and years.  All children's books are $.69, other books range from $1.00 to $5.00, and if you buy 3 you get one free (either 3 or 4 books, but either way, you get one free).  Here's what I bought:

For $4.44 I bought all 5 of these books.  The 2 Dr. Seuss board books were in really good condition, and so is the Cars board book.  It had some gunk on the front cover, but I was able to get that off easily, and the inside is pristine.  I love that book because I can read it to my son in Mater's voice, and that's a ton of fun!

I don't really know much about the two literature books, but the one is written from the viewpoint of Mr. Darcy, the other I'm not sure of.  Here's another shot of the Mr. Darcy book:

Can't wait to finish my current reading and get to this book.

Next, we hit up Goodwill.  This was not half-price day, but I found some good books for not much~and my sister bought one Dr. Seuss book (How The Grinch Stole Christmas).  She took it home before I could take a picture and show you!

The two larger books are by Bill Martin Jr and illustrated by Eric Carle, they are Kohl's Cares books, and I bought them for $1.00 each.  I also bought two more Sandra Boynton board books, "Pajama Time" and "What's Wrong, Little Pookie?"  Oh they are so cute and my son loves the Sandra Boynton books.  I also bought one more Nancy Drew to add to my collection.  Each book was $1.00.


On the way to Goodwill, we saw a sign for a shop advertising Book Liquidations!  So we had to stop in.  The books were all $1.00, and some were 2 for $1.00.  This shop was filled floor to ceiling with books after books after books.  If we didn't have the baby with us, I could have spent hours upon hours here.  I plan to go back on Saturday too.  Here's what we got.

The first book is "A E I O U and Sometimes Y" and is a large hardcover book.  Not thick, just large.  I also found several older Little Golden Books to add to my collection, and they are in good condition.  I love "The Count's Poem" and can't wait to read it to my son.

Here's part two of what I bought there:

More Little Golden Books!  One of the books (can't remember which) was copyrighted in 1956, and it's in really good condition.   I spent about $4.50 here for all the books pictured.  Wow! 

Today we are headed to Bookman's in Phoenix to see if my sister can find more Dr. Seuss books, and once again I must accompany her!  Wish us luck!

Enjoy your day and your latest book!

The Most Loved Children's Books

March is National "March Into Literacy" Month.  To celebrate, I found this awesome infographic The Most Loved Children's Books.

What books would you add to the graphic?


Via MAT@USC: Become a Teacher

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

What a beautiful little movie - it won an Oscar and I can see why.  Take a few minutes to watch:




Fitting for my little blog, hope you enjoy it.

Have a great day and enjoy your latest book!

The Smell of Books!

When I started researching on what kind of blog I wanted to write, I was asked this question:  When you go into Barnes & Noble, what section do you go to and stay in.  After quite a bit of thought on it, I realized that I loved the following sections:  children's books, literature, Christian books (fiction and non), biography, the bargain section, and the list went on and on.  I could honestly peruse almost any section of the bookstore and enjoy it (maybe except for the SciFi section, but that's a whole different post).

Truly, for me, the books are enjoyable, but not just the books, also the smell of the books.  There were days when I would go to the bookstore, pick up a book, start reading it (to see if it would hold my attention), and then smell the pages.  Seriously!  What a weirdo, right?  Wrong!  After doing much research, I've found that I'm not the only one who enjoys the smell of a book!

Personally, I like the smell of old or new books equally, and I haven't found a book that I didn't like the smell of yet.  (I'm sure I'll find it someday!)  Here are some of the articles and other items I found interesting while researching the smell of books.

Do a Google search on "smell of books" and this is the first link to pop up.  Interesting concept, and not a bad idea, although I have no idea how to actually make it work! http://smellofbooks.com/

I found this forum where someone posted the question: "Do You Smell Your Books?"  The answers are intriguing. http://www.librarything.com/topic/10361

http://beeryblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/the-smell-of-books/  What a great article about having books in the home available for children to read whenever or whatever they like.

The topic of the smell of books brings up an interesting sub-topic about e-readers and how they fit in.  Since they don't have the smell of a book, per say, some book lovers despise such.  I agree, however, with this article, stating that e-readers are different then books, and should be allowed to be such.  http://booksquare.com/enough-with-the-smell-of-books-okay/

Here's another great post about the smell of books!  http://bornabookworm.com/?p=45

I found this story about a lady who actually goes around smelling books!  http://nymag.com/news/articles/reasonstoloveny/2010/70078/

And here's a blogger who smells books (read the "about" section): http://www.ismellbooks.blogspot.com/

And, if you're addicted to Pinterest like I am, you'll enjoy this board titled "the smell of books."  http://pinterest.com/sarahbinnemans/reading-is-the-best/

I know I could write for days about this topic, but we'll stop here for now, and we'll revisit again later.  Enjoy your day and your latest book!

Image: Surachai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We Love Books!

Here are a few pictures of our bookshelves.  When I got pregnant with my last baby (he is 15 months now), I decided that I wanted a library for him, but I wasn't willing to pay full price for all the books I wanted.  So we started going to Goodwill on 50% off day and built up our library.

Most of the books on this first shelf are from Goodwill...I know you can't see each book, but this is a pretty good collection, and this isn't all...

This is another set of books, mostly from Goodwill.  Yup, all the Nancy Drew books are from Goodwill.  I'm still collecting those (there are 60 something in the series, I probably only have 30ish).

And these are the baby books (hence the reason they're all jumbled right now.  On the right are my collection of Golden Books (can't see the spine), and on the middle shelf on the left side are the Dr Seuss and Berenstein Bears books.  

We still want to add to our ever growing collection - I don't think you can have too many books, it just isn't possible! How do you store your books?

Goodwill 50% off 3/10/12

We had a good run at Goodwill yesterday.  We ended up going to 2 different Goodwill stores and wound up getting some good deals.  In total, I figured that if I had paid retail on all the books, I would have spent $139, but I spent $14 total on everything.

Here are the goodies from the first store.  I bought a few more Nancy Drew books to add to my collection.  Turns out one was a duplicate - I definitely need a better way to keep track of which books in the series I need and which ones I already have.

I bought several board books for the baby.  A few things to watch for when looking for board books:  Make sure the pages are clean, and the edges need to be pretty clean and not torn up.  Many times I've been able to find board books that are pretty much brand new.  These that I bought yesterday looked pretty good so I'm happy!

This is the first picture from the 2nd store.  No board books here, but some good Scholastic books, a Kohl's Cares book illustrated by Eric Carle, a Raggedy Ann book (not really old, but a nice book), and a classic story called "The Country Mouse and The City Mouse."  I also picked up a copy of "Stone Soup," a classic I remember from school, and "Good Night Gorilla" another classic.

The 2nd picture from the 2nd store includes 3 Little Golden Books ("The Littlest Christmas Elf," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Lion King No Worries").  I also bought "Witty and Zoom Zoom" by Suzy Spafford, and a cute board book called "I Udderly Love You!" 

I love the Little Golden Books, and each of them cost me $.35 today.  The "I Udderly Love You!" book is so cute!  It's about a cow talking about how much she loves her little calf.  She says things like, I love you when you're MOO-dy!  It's adorable.  And it's a tall book, but has hard pages, so it is good to read to the baby now!

Nothing in my stash yesterday cost more than $1.00 and many were quite a bit less.  That's a good amount of books for one Goodwill day.  Two weeks until the next shopping trip!   I'll update here on more issues until then so stay tuned!

Bookish Links

Saturday is Goodwill's 50% off day.  Be looking for a post this weekend showing all the good stuff I find!  Until then, I've found some rather interesting links for you to check out.  I could spend hours and hours at some of these sites - enjoy!

Book Dedications - http://bookdedications.wordpress.com/ - Loads of dedications found in second-hand books.

Why I love Second-hand books! http://shereadsbooks.org/2009/why-i-love-second-hand-books/ - such a great article talking about all the good things second-hand books bring.

Forgotten Bookmarks - http://www.forgottenbookmarks.com/ - fascinating blog written by a bookseller, logging things lost between the pages of his books.  I could spend hours here!

Awful Library Books - http://awfullibrarybooks.net/ - just a couple of librarians who comment on outdated books contained in actual libraries.  Amusing.

And finally, when you have an extra minute or two, take this Opening Lines Book Quiz http://www.abebooks.com/books/literature-dickens-melville-vonnegut/opening-lines-quiz.shtml and see how well you remember your books!

See you this weekend!

Books!

I am always looking for bargain books! Whether it's every other week at the Goodwill half price days, or at a commercial book store, I am always looking. I love children's books, Christian books, literature, cookbooks and more! I'll share with you my finds on this site! Hope you enjoy!