The Book-a-holic

Too many books? Nah. Inconceivable!

This weekend I spent a couple of hours digging through the books in the kids’ rooms. In my older son’s room, the books were piled two deep, and my husband really wanted me to open up a few cubes in the big shelf for the cloth toy baskets. It’s a “book shelf” not a “toy shelf.” Okay, so my #1 son has a ton of toys and books in his room, and I had to find a way of dealing with it.

I had an idea. In my #2 son’s room (very small shoebox of a room), he has drawers under the bed. His room is too small to play in, and it gets trashed when he does – nowhere to walk. So, I emptied one of the big drawers under his bed, and thought, hey, I could make a book drawer. He absolutely loved the idea.



Hours later, I had pulled out a bunch of baby books to store or give away. I moved the chapter books (from #1 son’s room) and all the beginning readers (from #2 son’s book shelf) into #2 son’s drawer, and I moved picture books from #1 son’s shelves to fill the gaps on #1 son’s shelves. Then I moved novels to the little shelves in #1 son’s room.

I was feeling very good about myself, but I still had no holes to fill with toys. After another hour and more weeding out of books that could fit in #2 son’s drawer, I have room.

I haven't even begun to tackle the jumble of books in the living room, but I need more shelves to do that.

I’m a book-a-holic. I admit it.

Save an Editor: Buy a Book

In the past two months, we’ve seen a drastic blow to the children’s publishing business. Big publishing houses are consolidating and laying off editors in order to cope with the economic crisis. Others have declared a moratorium on submissions.

Last November, RACWI sponsored (along with Liftbridge Books) the Rochester Area Children’s Book Festival. We had record numbers of attendees and some of the authors were left with no books on their tables by the end of the festival. People were still buying books in November. Has America’s purchasing habits changed that much since the festival, or were we just seeing an isolated event?

My family has not stopped buying books. Since the beginning of 2009, I have bought more than seventeen children’s books. I can’t remember all the titles because my children ferreted some of them away.

1. The Secret Cheese Syndicate by Donna St. Cyr (bought 4 copies- some for gifts) – Middle Grade
2. The Grave Yard Book by Neil Gaiman –YA (IMHO)
3. The Boys Book: How to the Best at Everything by Dominique Enright and Guy Macdonald (elementary and up)
4. Penguins and Antartica by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce (chapter book)
5. The Magical Dress by Charles Nolan (chapter book)
6. The Daring Rescue by Charles Nolan (chapter book)
7. The Missing Medal by Charles Nolan (chapter book)
8. Saving Christmas by Charles Nolan (chapter book)
9. The Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear, Illustrated by Jan Brett (picture book)
10. The Faery Taile Project: Book One by Jim C. Hines and Christopher Kastensmidt (YA)
11. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith
12. A guide to current card games like Pokemon (for my son, but it’s still on order) – Middle Grade
13. Crogan’s Vengeance by Chris Schweizer (graphic novel, YA)


What about you?