Libraries are hands down, collectively, the best places on earth. You walk in and books and videos featuring all things entertainment to education are at your fingertips for free. Going in to find a new bestseller or your fave’s latest release and finding it on the shelf or getting that email notification that the book you placed on hold is available is like winning the geek lottery. Don’t deny yourself and/or your kids those precious moments–borrow books from your local libraries.
If you’re a reader and/or you are raising kids who read, maybe you appreciate the comfort of a well-stocked book nook. Maybe you like to take your time to read a book without late fines peeking over your shoulder. Maybe you’d like to see your big kid introduce their favorite books to their friends or younger siblings. Maybe you like to highlight passages and make notes in the margins and dog-ear pages. Maybe you want interesting books for your houseguests to browse and perhaps borrow. Sometimes, you just gotta buy the book. I highly recommend finding your local used, independent or franchise bookstore. I frequent all of the above as well as Barnes & Noble (because books). If you prefer to shop on Amazon, every book title and image on my site is linked to Amazon.com. See the Disclosure statement near the bottom of the sidebar on this page.
For this series, Buy The Book, each week in each new post you will find book recommendations from three categories of books–picture books for early readers (Kids), biographies and chapter books for elementary aged readers (Pre-Tweens), and books suitable for adults (Adults)–one of each per week. The books will be from my and Zack’s (he’s 7 but reads like a big kid) personal libraries or from our library wish list. Add them to yours or buy them for your bookie friends. There will occasionally be themed BTB posts focused on one author, topic, genre, reading level, etc. Why buy kids books when they’re only kids for a minute? Buy them because they will enjoy them and pass them on to spread the joy of reading to other kids and families when they outgrow them. Books for teens have been purposefully omitted here since I don’t live with one and lack experience in the reading lives of teenagers. Soon come. Each week you will also find a fun library and independent bookstore challenge to explore the ones in your town (Lit Homework ).
Continue reading to see this week’s recommendations to build your family’s home library.