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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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As my dc get older, I realize that I have a lot of picture books that I don't necessarily need to hang on to for much longer. I have already purged my shelves of many- but mainly ones that were never our favorites.
Some are easy to part with; others, while not our favorites, are still beautiful and have great stories.
With the changes in the picture book industry recently (not as many children's books being printed) and the price of OOP books climbing, I find myself very reluctant to part with my books. Yet I cannot keep everything- I don't have unlimited space, and I need room on the shelves for books for older kids.
So, I find myself like a hamster on a wheel with these books- going around and around. I think about things like this: remember how scary picture books were in the 70's? All the icky illustrations? What if that happens again? What will I read to my grandchildren? 
Anyone who wants to pipe up and give me some perspective, please feel free!
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 11:42am | IP Logged
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I'm going to encourage finding a way to keep them! All the good ones!
My mom did this with all of our books. Now, we didn't have a huge library of picture books, but we did have a generous little library. She kept them all. Oh, I just cannot tell you the warm memories I have when I go home and read to my children from our childhood favorites.
When we grew up, mom boxed up all our picture books and kept them in the top of our closets. There they sat and waited. When I had my first child, mom got them down and stacked them all back on a shelf in our old rooms upstairs in my family home. There they remain, and there they are loved anew and read again by my children. Some of them have found their way to my own bookshelves in my home as they stow away in a child's bag.  It is an unspeakable sweetness to find my children so delighting in books that have my brother's name or sister's scribble marked in them, knowing that we are enjoying and making memories with the same delightful books.
Toys, other than the dearest most special toys, I can part with (by the way, mom saved our favorite toys, too - and those have a special home in a cupboard in her living room and all come out to play again when my kids and I go to visit!!) Clothes, other than FHC dresses and special items that mark a memorable occasion, I will part with. Books are a part of the fabric of our memories in such a way that they will either be passed along to my children one day, or will stay here, awaiting the blessing of grandchildren!
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Jen Mackintosh
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 11:50am | IP Logged
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Very helpful, Jen. My main dilemma is where to store these books, and there is definitely room on the top shelves in the kid's closets for a good many,
I can't save *everything* (and I don't want to) but I want to save more than I currently have easy storage for... but now I have the closet idea  .
I can also consider what other items I am storing and maybe part with some of those to make room for the books.
Hmm... this is giving me more to chew on....
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 2:48pm | IP Logged
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Melinda
Didn't you do a big cull before and pared down to quality already? If so I would really consider keeping, find SOME way.
Like Jen I LOVE sharing my childhood books with my children.
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Erin
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kristinannie
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I would try to keep a lot of the really great books. I treasure the books my mom saved for me.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 4:35pm | IP Logged
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Erin wrote:
Melinda
Didn't you do a big cull before and pared down to quality already? If so I would really consider keeping, find SOME way.
Like Jen I LOVE sharing my childhood books with my children. |
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Yes- I have culled several times. Last year during Advent I tried to purge all of the really twaddly Xmas books we owned. That left me with still a huge stack of books for Xmas
This summer I did another big purge. The problem is I keep going to library sales and finding new treasures, so the overall numbers never seem to go down
Usually what happens is I go to a sale and will find 2-3 books that to me are "treasures"- books we have repeatedly checked out from the library. I will buy those. I have picked up books like Cranberry Thanksgiving and Brigid's Cloak that way. Then I have to make room on the shelves for these great books, so something has to give or go.
I have never purged a book we dearly loved, but the borderline ones sit in stacks on my desk and drive me bananas  (that is my stack of books taunting me)
ETA: The good news here is that I have done a lot of household purging lately, so that has freed up some shelf space in closets that I hadn't considered before.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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MaryM
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SeaStar wrote:
I have never purged a book we dearly loved, but the borderline ones sit in stacks on my desk and drive me bananas (that is my stack of books taunting me) |
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Well then maybe you should give us the "borderline" list and we'll tell you what to do with them ...
Seriously, twaddle, sure, easy to get rid of. Anything else - that is a good book - doesn't even have to be on the great list - I have a hard time getting rid of. Any chance of just moving to box storage for some of those - so they are off the shelves but still held onto for future - like the picture book apocalypse you speak of...
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 5:54pm | IP Logged
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MaryM wrote:
| the picture book apocalypse you speak of... |
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This has me rolling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>>> PICTURE BOOK APOCALYPSE <<<
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Jen Mackintosh
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 26 2011 at 8:05pm | IP Logged
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Mary- you are too funny
I think I have it in my mind that I can purge everything down to the bare necessities, even books. I mean- in the Ingalls' house didn't they just have Pa's big book of animal stories and the Bible?
And we just listened to "Heidi" on cd- she was ecstatic with just her one green book of Bible stories. She truly treasured it. (and now my dc are determined to have goats- but that is another story).
I guess I am pondering the "less is more" concept. Also- 95% at least of the books we own have been bought at yard sales, library sales, thrift stores or traded for at Paperback Swap and BookMooch. If other people hadn't let go and been willing to share, my shelves would almost empty.
I keep thinking: I could keep this book for 20 years in a box on my shelf, or some other little boy or girl could be loving it tomorrow.
Now I'm not saying I'm going to give all my good (to me) books away, because that is not happening. "Pete's a Pizza" is not leaving my house.
But Aliki's Dinosaurs are Different can go, I think.... neither of my dc were ever big into dinosaurs. We didn't love that book.
If the Apocalypse comes, I'll have to risk being dinosaur free, except for
Ten Little Dinosaurs My kids still love that one!
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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stellamaris
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| Posted: Oct 27 2011 at 6:40am | IP Logged
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Melinda, if you do plan on saving the picture books, you might want to ask your children which ones are their favorites. They may have special memories of a book that they will someday want to share with their own children.
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Caroline
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I just need to pop in and say that we had to get rid of ALL of my books when we were growing up because we moved A LOT! That being said I have a few books that I remember about and I have bought them used online but it was so difficult to find some of them. I like Caroline's idea about asking your kids which books they would like to share with their own children and getting rid of the rest.
Using the Dinosaurs as an example, if your kids weren't really into them, then think how great it would be to explain to the grandkids why you kept each book you did keep!
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Mimi
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SeaStar
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| Posted: Oct 27 2011 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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That is a great idea. I have tried it a couple of times with my dd, and it was helpful, though she only had the patience to evaluate about 20 books at a time.
It was also very interesting to hear which ones she liked and which she didn't. There were a few surprises. My ds would just say, with his body thrown against the bookcase: keep them all. FOREVER.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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JennGM
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Melinda, thanks for starting this thread. This has got me thinking.
There are some I'm just so ready to pitch, like the weathered and torn and chewed through board books and flap books. My little one is 3, so I won't rush, but the lack of uniform size and "unfixability" really annoys me.
The criteria I usually use to keep a book if we like the author or illustration:
1) Books OOP or hard to find
2) Books my library doesn't or won't carry
3) Books that have repeated appeal, not just one child.
I have too many George Washington books right now. I will cull it to only favorite authors or illustrators. The ones that didn't get rave reviews will be sent away.
But when there was the big lead scare and the libraries purged books that I didn't think were "old", it has made my list expand, rather than diminish. Plus, newer editions have new illustrators, often ones we don't like.
So, I'm just discussing. I keep purging and rotating. I have to keep on top of it. There will be some books that I'll rescue from library sales that are pertinent to our studies right now, but later won't have that appeal, and I'm not attached to them. They go. Dinosaurs are a good example. We're not into them much. Read a few, then walk away. I won't be keeping much in that department.
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Erin
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SeaStar wrote:
| I have never purged a book we dearly loved, but the borderline ones sit in stacks on my desk and drive me bananas (that is my stack of books taunting me) |
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Phew, I can sleep easy now.
Time to ask the hard questions then. Do you read it or consistently pick up something else
Seastar wrote:
ETA: The good news here is that I have done a lot of household purging lately, so that has freed up some shelf space in closets that I hadn't considered before. |
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There is your answer, all good now 
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Erin
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SeaStar
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JennGM wrote:
So, I'm just discussing. I keep purging and rotating. I have to keep on top of it. There will be some books that I'll rescue from library sales that are pertinent to our studies right now, but later won't have that appeal, and I'm not attached to them. They go. Dinosaurs are a good example. We're not into them much. Read a few, then walk away. I won't be keeping much in that department. |
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This a great point and one that I often forget. Sometimes I will buy a book that is pertinent to us now, thinking that I can later pass it on. And then I forget that it was never meant to be a keeper and wring my hands over it.
If I am in a hurry (aka shopping with kids) and the books are cheap (say ten cents a book), I will tend to scoop up several that look promising and then evaluate them at home. Then I get caught again in that bad place of not wanting to let them go (unless they are obvious stinkers  .
I have loved to read all my life but I was never a book hoarder until I had kids. One library I used allowed only three holiday books at a time to be checked out, and then you could only keep them a week. Boo, hiss.
My current library only allows me to have 50 books out at a time.
That type of thing has made me want to have my own copies of books.
I have been warped
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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4Real Forums : Picture Book Discoveries
Topic: What stays and what goes....
