I love libraries. I have since I was a young child. My mom, busy as she was with six children, was faithful to take us to the library. I remember going to a marvelous one- the Willow Glen library, part of the Santa Clara County Library system- an old building, nestled in the trees. Each of us six kids would come out with a huge pile of books and happily start reading the moment we got in our old Plymouth station wagon. It would only take us a few days to be done with our books, then back again.

I did the same thing with our kids. Sometimes when they were at school, I would make a trip to the library, and when they walked in the front door after school, I had the books spread down the front hall, with all the covers showing- it was like Christmas!! All through their childhood, trips to the library were special for us.

I am always amazed when I come home from the library that all this goodness is free! What a wonderful gift we have in this country- and I never take it for granted. Whenever my husband and I go on a trip, and when we used to go out of town anywhere with our kids, you can be sure that two of our stops are the local library and a used bookstore. We can spend hours in these places!

This is the pile I got at the library the other day- mostly some books for read aloud for the Kindergarten and preschoolers I read to.

(I also got 2 almost new magazines from the stack of magazines that the Friends of the Library sells- an extra treat!) At the top are two Horn Book magazines I checked out- I have always loved to look at these. If you are not familiar with them, they are a great resource for locating children's books. They review the books that have recently been published, so I read it with pencil and paper in hand. I read the reviews of the books I have written down on Amazon and if they sound good, I request them online from the library I use. I always am looking for book reviews of kid's books when I read magazines, newspapers, and so on. Another way I search for good children's books is from a number of sites I have bookmarked. I periodically will go to these sites and see if they have updated them, then make my list and request the books online from the library. Here are some of the sites I use:
The Boston Athenaeum Childrens' Library; The Seattle Public Library; Santa Clara County Library; and the Brooklyn Public Library. I do have many, many more, but that is a start to searching for some good reads for your children!