Predictably, it is usually lower-value items that come up for trade — more expensive titles are likely to be listed for sale, or to have a long wait time on a swapping site.  Still, if you’re not in a hurry to get a particular title, paperbackswap.com is a low-cost way to build your library.

Unfortunately, there is not yet an option to browse the site for children’s literature only, so you do have to sort through all the adult-level books in their catalogue, but you can limit your search to fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.  Stories are available via mp3 download and podcast subscription.

Books Every Child Should Know

Nancy Polette. Libraries Unlimited 2005, Paperback, 160 pages, $22.64

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

When a group of people shares a good story, there can be great pleasure in relating to one another on the basis of that shared experience. Books Every Child Should Know provides a forum for the rehearsal of shared stories. It contains a wide variety of knowledge-based games — Q & A, fill-in-the-blank trivia, cryptograms, word searches, crossword puzzles, synonym/homonym substitution, and so on — all drawn from different genres of children’s literature, including Mother Goose, Aesop’s Fables, cultural myths and folktales, classic literature, and Caldecott and Newbery winners.  There are also several short book lists that touch on the high points of these genres.

For families that read a great deal, this book can provide a good opportunity for entertainment based on shared stories, and for classrooms it provides the opportunity to rehearse (and perhaps assess) the knowledge that has been retained through reading them.

Over the past few years the program has dealt with several issues in children’s literature, including teaching children doctrinal truths, the Twilight and Harry Potter series, the diminishing popularity of reading as an American pastime, and the genre of Christian literature.  Below are some of these inspiring and informative programs.  After clicking through to the link on this page, you can either listen online, or download the mp3 to your hard drive.

October 14, 2009 (blog): Parents, Obey Your Children?
How children’s literature reflects a cultural shift toward child-centric families.

October 1, 2009: Banned Book Week
Description: Banned Books Week is this week in America, trying to draw attention to the dangers of limiting access to all types of information.  But are books really being banned in America?  Certainly not.  The American Library Association’s problem actually falls on parents who are concerned about what their children are reading.  On today’s program, Dr. Mohler notes the importance of parental involvement with what books are being feed to their children.  Before God, parents are charged with knowing what their children read and guarding them from material that is not appropriate.
Keywords: Abortion, Audio, Banned Books Week, Books, Earthquake, Homosexuality, military, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Reading, Tsunami

July 31, 2009: Storytelling and a Child’s Imagination
Guest Host: Dr. Russell Moore
Guest: Andrew Peterson
Description: Does storytelling matter to children? Guest-host Russell Moore speaks with writer and musician Andrew Peterson about the importance of telling the right stories–and telling the right Story–to children, demonstrating how storytelling has everything to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Keywords: President Barack Obama, Sgt. James Crowley, Clunker For Cash, Children’s Books, Storytime, Family

July 17, 2009: What Christian Fiction Reveals about Christianity
Guest Host: Dr. Russell Moore
Guests: Jennifer Lyell, Justin Taylor
Description: Christian fiction novels are both powerful and influential in the Church. What message does the content of Christian fiction send about where the heart of the Church is today? The stories we buy and read reflect the issues that are most clearly on our hearts. Jennifer Lyell and Justin Taylor join Dr. Moore in discussing what Christian fiction says about the health of modern Christianity.
Keywords: President Barack Obama, Culture, Fiction, Reading, Books

June 16, 2009: Avoiding the Summer Brain Drain
Description: Summer is a great time for resting, relaxing and enjoying time away from school. But summer can also be a time for mentally checking out of life. How should parents encourage their children to stay mentally engaged during vacation? From reading to travel opportunities, summer is a great time for families to learn, together.
Keywords: Iran, Elections, Drugs, Pot, TV, Adult Content, School, Summer, Teenagers, Reading

May 19, 2009: Bruce Ware on “Big Truths for Young Hearts”
Guest: Bruce Ware
Description: Ever thought of reading systematic theology to your kids at bedtime? Well, Bruce Ware did. A professor of theology and the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Ware’s new book–Big Truths for Small Hearts–is a tremendous resource for Christian parents. He joins Dr. Mohler on the program today for a special conversation.
Keywords: Abortion, President Barack Obama, Economy, Seminary, Children, Theology, Family, Gospel

April 3, 2009: Health Alert — Read to Save Your Life
Keywords: Iowa, Marriage, Homosexuality, Ward Churchill, Shopping Mall, Reading, Books, Health, Relaxation, Stress

March 31, 2009: Has The ‘Twilight’ Phenomenon Reached Your Home?
Description: Stephenie Meyer’s blockbuster Twilight series has become a publishing phenomenon and, now, a blockbuster at the box office and DVD release. However, given their subject—adolescent vampire romance—many families are asking whether or not these books should be accepted reading material for their own daughters. On today’s program, Dr. Mohler examines the books and offers his analysis and commentary.
Keywords: Atheism, Assisted Suicide, Twilight, Stephenie Meyers, Vampire, Novels, Fiction

January 30, 2008: Defining Literacy Down — Do Your Kids Read Books?
Guest: Bruce Cole
Description: Educators and librarians are noticing a troubling trend among our kids: they’re in the library, but they aren’t reading. On today’s program, Dr. Mohler speaks with Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, about the importance of raising kids who read.
Keywords: Womb Transplant, Embryo, Library, Books, Thomas Washington, Children, Reading, Bruce Cole

January 7, 2008: The Twilight of the Books?
Description: Writing in The New Yorker, Caleb Crain warns that literary reading is fast disappearing as Americans are shifting attention to amusements. In “The Twilight of the Books,” Crain cites a number of research reports from both the United States and the Netherlands and argues that we are just not reading as previous generations had read. Book sales per person are falling, reading scores at many grade levels are falling, and this generation of parents is producing a generation of young people who do not read books — and generally feel no loss. On today’s program, Dr. Mohler examines the implication of this trend not only for the broader culture, but for the church.
Keywords: reading, books, Twilight of the Books, Great Britain, Lee Harris, capital punishment, Supreme Court, rape of child, rape, read to children, turn TV off, television

November 16, 2007: Keeping the Faith on Campus
Guest: J. Budziszewski
Description: What happens when Christian young adults go to university? For many, it initiates a season of life marked by an intellectual crisis of identity; many don’t survive. On today’s program, Dr. Mohler is joined by University of Texas professor J. Budziszewski, author of How to Stay Christian in College.
Keywords: Children, Reading, Bible, 1968, J. Budziszewski, College, Faith, Students

August 29, 2006: The Darkening Of Children’s Literature
Guest: Dorothea Wolfson
Keywords: Hurricane Katrina, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Education, Fox News, Islam, Childrens Literature, Books, Bill Maher, Larry King

January 23, 2006 What Makes Literature Truly Subversive? Alison Lurie Looks at C. S. Lewis
Keywords: Children’s Literature, Canada, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper, Michael Moore, Brokeback Mountain, Abortion, Roe v. Wade, Alison Lurie, The New York Review of Books, “The Chronicles of Narnia”

July 18, 2005: Finding God In Harry Potter?
Guest Host: Russell Moore
Guests: Caryl Matrisciana, John Granger
Keywords: Harry Potter, Children, Fantasy, Witchcraft, Magic, Wizards, Books, Wicca, Novel, Caryl Matrisciana, John Granger

May 16, 2005: Teenage Girls and Pornographic Novels: Protecting Our Daughters From R-rated Literature
Keywords: Hurricane Katrina, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Education, Fox News, Islam, Childrens Literature, Books, Bill Maher, Larry King

Their home page is cluttered with ads, but they have to fund this great service somehow.

• Teachingbooks.net Author Pronunciation Guide
  A free page of sound clips in which the authors pronounce their names and explain a little bit about their names’ origin.
• NLS Say How? Pronunciation Guide to Public Figures
  The National Library Service for the Blind and Handicapped maintains an online directory of famous and non-famous public figures and those associated with them.
• Wikiname.com
  The “name” section of Wikipedia, the collaborative online encyclopedia, devoted to baby names, name meanings, name origins, and so on.  Typing a name into this interface will often bring up a pronunciation and/or a link to information about the person named.
• Horn Book Magazine Author Pronunciation Page
  In 1996, Jon Scieszka (pronounced “shezz-kuh”) responded to a reader request by presenting a very funny, tongue-in-cheek pronunciation guide, in the form of a phrase book, in which he usefully gives the pronunciation of a number of popular children’s authors and illustrators.

According to Kathleen Horning, the market for children’s books developed largely in response to public libraries and schools.  In the 1970s-80s the market began turning toward consumer sales, but librarians’ choices still influence publishers’ decisions about what books to publish.  Your local library’s selection will reflect the priorities and values of your local community as well as the American Library Associations’ philosophy, which depending on where you live may or may not align well with your family’s priorities.  As you utilize the library, your choices will influence the priorities of your local branch.

A few recommendations for maximizing your use of the library:

• Make use of online web access provided to check due dates and renew titles.  Overdue fines can really add up if you max out your library card regularly.  Most libraries will allow you to check an option on your account to receive an email when a book is due or overdue.
• Many libraries allow you to request books to be pulled from the shelves for you to pick up.  You can save time by having someone else (who knows the library well and has no small children along) do the searching, although you do pass up the chance to discover related books on the same shelf.  At our local library this process can take anywhere from one day to three weeks, so it’s not the best option for time-sensitive titles.
• When a book is unavailable at your local branch, you can request it from another library in your county, through a library consortium, or through interlibrary loan (links are for our local library).  These options generally take longer and allow you to keep the book for a shorter period of time, but they still provide an opportunity to examine a book before deciding whether you want your kids to read it.

Your use of the local library is prepaid through your taxes, and may be the single best resource for keeping the cost of your home library within reasonable limits.  Whether you prefer a “discovery trek,” when you browse the shelves for new finds, or if you let your fingers do the walking as you peruse a book list, your public library can provide you with a vast array of books to enjoy.