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saintanneshs
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 3:23pm | IP Logged
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Please excuse me if I'm posting this in the wrong spot, but I wasn't sure where to stick it!
For those of you in Virginia (or passing through!), I just wanted to mention a place I visited last weekend and found soooo many great children's books (LIVING books...yea!) at a very discounted price. It was called the Green Valley Bookfair and it's in Mount Crawford, Virginia. The website is www.gvbookfair.com. You can check the site for scheduled bookfair days and times.
It's basically 2 huge warehouses connected by a walkway, filled with books. One warehouse seems to be for just adults and the other just for children... people everywhere (not a whole lot of stroller space) and books as far as the eye can see...nowhere for the kids to sit or do anything but stand and wait while mom and dad shop, but they can flip through just about anything they want... There are bathrooms, no food or drink, and ample parking. Some of the books have remainder marks on them, some are just slightly damaged (they look no worse than a well-loved book at our house) and some have nothing wrong with them and are in pristine condition (as many of the ones I bought were). The discounted prices are unbelieveable!! 
Here's a bit of what I found there (and I'm not listing all of it but just a few to give you a good idea of what's there and what it cost):
Snowflake Bentley (hardback) for $5.50 (orig. $16.00)
Franklin & Eleanor by Cheryl Harness (hardback) for $6.25 (orig. 17.99)...this one had been in my cart at Amazon for some time!...not anymore! 
To Fly: The Story of The Wright Brothers by Wendie C. Old (hardback) for $5.00 (orig.$16.00)
Flight by Robert Burleigh --bio about Charles Lindbergh's journey (paperback) for 2.50 (orig. $6.99)
In Coal Country by Judith Hendershot (paperback about coal country kids) for 1.75 (orig. 5.99)
The Flag Maker by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (hardback) $5.50 (orig. 16.00)
A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian (paperback) for 2.00 (orig. 5.95)
St. Patrick's day in the Morning by Eve Bunting (paperback) $2.25 (orig. 5.95)
Okay, so you get the idea...lots of Jan Brett, even Charles Dickens The Child's Story...picture book & cassette packs for only $3.50 (I bought a bunch of fairy tales...) Coloring books, workbooks, adult fiction and non-fiction and of course several aisles devoted to grocery-store-like twaddle 
I ended up spending around $150- and came away with 4 huge bags LOADED with books. At amazon that much money would have maybe bought me 1 box full. All in all, a very exciting trip! 
(As a side note, my boys have been reading all day, every day for the last 2 days! Yeah-hoo!  )
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Kristine
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 3:30pm | IP Logged
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I am so jealous!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 3:42pm | IP Logged
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If anyone is interested in planning a trip to Mt. Crawford, I'd be more than happy to help with any questions or concerns you might have...dh's family is a little familiar with the area - he has family in Bridgewater.
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Kristine
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guitarnan
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 7:50pm | IP Logged
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Kristine,
I just interviewed the co-director of the Book Fair. He was extremely nice! He told me that they began this Book Fair with over 500,000 books - 40,000 titles. This is a family-run business that started out as used book sales at local flea markets, and has mushroomed into one of the great bargains of life in Virginia. (Just my humble, book-loving opinion...)
I like to stock up on board books there...they make great baby shower gifts, and you can give a whole bunch instead of just a couple!
They ususally have a lot of Civil War titles; this time the cookbook section and gardening section looked particularly good, and they had quite a few Newbery titles for older children.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 7:58pm | IP Logged
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Wow, Nancy! What a cool interview! 
So how far do you have to drive to reach the Bookfair?
And I wonder where the books he sells come from...???
I wish I could have SEEN the gardening section. I was up to my ears in children's picture books!! But I'm not complaining!! I actually had the thought to buy a few Christmas presents (in advance) but when I got home, the kids were so excited, I couldn't bring myself to drag a bag of the books away from them and put them in a closet for the next 9 months!
There's always next time, right?!
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Kristine
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guitarnan
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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Well...they get the books from a lot of different publishers. Sometimes they are able to order different titles (e. g. the Southern Living Annual Editions). Often they get a mixed lot from a publisher, with lots of copies of some books and only a few of others. They have tons of Curious George books this time, for example, and no Tomie dePaola  . Last time I went, they had several dePaola titles.
I freely admit that I do most of my gift shopping when I leave my children at home with Dad. That way I can actually leave the children's section and see what else is there.
I'm in WV, so it takes about an hour and a half for me to make the drive. Since I do most of my library things in Harrisonburg, as well as some grocery and craft supply shopping, I just do one big day and get everything done. (Wait...that's never happened...there's always something I forget...!!!) My typical Harrisonburg day includes groceries (usually 2 stores), library, bookstore or craft store, gas fill-up (saving us 20+ cents per gallon), and Costco, Kohl's or some other place like that. It's tiring, but the most effective way to do things when your closest strip mall is an hour away by car.
Where are you in relationship to Harrisonburg? (I've probably asked you before, sorry...I have a bad memory for this stuff...)
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: March 28 2006 at 9:27pm | IP Logged
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We're about an hour and a half away on the other side! Right outside of Fredericksburg...well, 30 minutes outside of F'burg, actually. Funny, I asked dh how far the Bookfair was from WV and he said an hour or hour and a half.
Kinda neat, huh?
So there's nowhere you can shop that's closer than Harrisonburg? wow! Do you have to bring coolers in the car for your groceries?
I did notice the over-abundance of Curious George this time. Too bad he's not a fav. of mine...glad to hear there were DePaola's there last time. I wonder what will be next...? I think I can see this road trip to the Bookfair becoming a bi-monthly event for us!
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Kristine
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guitarnan
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| Posted: March 29 2006 at 6:32am | IP Logged
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Well, shopping is interesting. We do have a small Navy commissary on base and one good-sized grocery store in the "big" town in the county. I do most of my shopping at the commissary, but we adore ethnic food, so I have to go to H'burg for the more exotic ingredients. I do have one of those plug-in ice chests. It's great.
I didn't realize there was any farm country left near Fredericksburg. It's grown so much. We used to live in Virginia Beach and would drive up I-95 all the time to visit friends in MD. I sure hope all that pretty countryside doesn't get swallowed up by strip malls.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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4Real Forums : Picture Book Discoveries
Topic: Green Valley Bookfair
