And so the Children's Book collection GROWS

Today our book order came in from the Scholastic Book Club at the boys preschool.  I just can't seem to pass these order forms up and every time I buy $20-40 worth of books.   YOU KNOW you will be seeing about five of these books on the Children's Christmas Book tour, I was worried they wouldn't arrive on time and I would have to select other books, but here they are.  Two of the books pictured were given to the boys as Christmas gifts from their teachers, which is so funny because two of the books that I ordered are on back order and WHO KNOWS when they will arrive here. One of the books I ordered was Bear Waits Up for Christmas and for the life of me I can't remember the other one, so I guess it will be a nice surprise when it does arrive.

Some people wonder how I can order books from a Scholastic Book form without phyically seeing the book, afterall they give such a brief description , and they are right at times it is very hard.  What I usually do is first Judge A Book By Its Cover.  I am drawn to a book by its art work, just like most children are, and usually the cover doesn't lie to me.  Have I been dissappointed a few times?  Yes.  My loss is not a total waste of money though, what I do when I get a book I am not fond of, is give it to our local library and they either add it to their shelves or the book mobile.  Win Win!  However, to help me in my selection I will sometimes go on to Amazon.com and look the book up and read a longer description and the reviews, this helps a lot.  At this point though 75-80% of our 2 little Boys books I hand picked.


I try to order mostly hardcover books because they will last the longest around here, but the soft cover or board books are cheaper and I can put them in a basket for easy access for the boys in their room and not worry to much if the tear them up.  I try to teach the boys to respect books and take care of them, but without fail I will find them wrestling over a book, standing on one, or tossing it across the room.  Davey used to be horrible with books.  I tried to teach him at a young age to love books and I would choose 2-3 board books to give him at nap time when he was still a toddler (he was not a good napper so I thought a book would keep him quiet and in bed).  WRONG, he was quiet alright, but the little sucker was in their man handling the board books and tearing them apart.  Many of our board books, pop-up books, and soft cover books have packing tape holding them together.  I don't toss a book until I can no longer mend it back to readable shape.

What books will  I buy next, who knows, but for now my book budget is on hold until 2010.  Hopefully you will enjoy the rest of the books on our Children's Christmas Book tour.  I hope to continue my children's book reviews, because I love them and always love passing on a good book whether for a child or an adult.  Good reading to you!