A Not-Quite-Crunchy Perspective...
Unlike these, my list would not, almost exclusively, feature, electronic and licensed and heavily advertised toys. Instead it would list, the kind of toys I try to buy, open-ended, imagination-building, high quality toys that hold kids interest more than a day and last long enough to hand down to the grandkids.
The project kinda grew.
Now, I’ve had to add, SAFE toys, preferably not made in
Best Toys For The Holidays -Part II- Dolls
Best Toys For The Holidays - Part I – Blocks
During National Children’s Book week I’ve been thinking and writing about the children’s book industry and my personal strategy for buying books. So, today I have a list…not of good books but sites to find lists of good books and places to buy good books…because sometimes they aren’t that easy to find!
- "Building a Home Library" List -The American Library Association ‘s Children’s Book Council Joint Committee, has created four bibliographies, to provide guidance to parents, grandparents, and others interested in assembling a high-quality library for their children at home.
- List of Caldecott Award Winners – Great books for younger children - it is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
- List of Newberry Award Winners – Mostly for older children – though often good- read-alouds. It is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. You can find reviews of these books, mostly by Moms here.
- List of The 2007 Notable Books - "notable" is defined as: Worthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children's books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children's interests in exemplary ways.
- Bookspot.com - The New York Public Library's Children's Books Site– Book lists, abstracts and reviews of children’s books
- Waldorf Schools recommend wonderful, sweet, well written books for younger children including- Elsa Beskow and M. Tarrant fairy books.You can Find some of their favorites at Waldorf Books.com.
- The NEA also publishes a list of great multicultural books for kids.
Though almost any book can be ordered from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Alibris , a few of my other favorite sites to buy books are:
- Barefoot Books or from my friend Prism, a “stallholder” for Barefoot Books .
- Purple House Press
- And finally, if you’d rather read online or print your own…try Baldwin Online Literature Project or Children's Books at Suite 101 for E-books of classics in the public domain…they’re free!
What other ideas did I miss? Where do you find and buy good books?
More Thursday Thirteen
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10 comments:
Nice Thursday post! I hope you are having a good one! Come check out my blog! I just posted my Thursday Thirteen with a few add-ons!
Love all things bookish! Very helpful list for this Thursday. :)
http://madamerubies.com/blog/?p=846
I use the Newberry & Caldecott lists. Our library has a wonderful list by grade--I don't always agree with their choices, but they serve a broad group of people. There are a couple books I read last year (from the library) I think one was Honey for a Child's Heart and the other was a pair Great Books for Boys/Girls (I think).
Will be looking at your lists.
Super TT. Books are my favorite gift.
Terrific Thursday Thirteen!
My TT is posted.
Have a wonderful day!
Happy TT'ing!
*^_^
(=':'=)
(")_ (")Š
Raggedy
Thanks for a very helpful list, I'm such a bookworm and still need some things for my Christmas-list, so I'll take a look at those reccommendation sites.
Happy TT!
Greets Julia
Fun stuff to dig through! I'll have to take a gander. One of my favorite children's books is the first one I bought my son, "Goodnight Gorilla". If you have very small children, even infants, the colors are so bright and contrasting, it never gets old. And there's so much detail, I even enjoy looking at it over and over. Very little text. I like those sometimes because they inspire imagination.
Thanks so much for this post. I am going to start a tradition of getting my sons a book or two from the Caldecott list every year for Christmas!
I love giving books, and I am a children's book addict. I could buy and buy.
This year I am adding a sticker from ecolibris to each book that I give. Gives the gift a cool "green" touch. I am planning to blog about it next week.
Thank you for this post! Don't forget the nominees for each of the awards you mentioned - not "winners" but certainly the cream of the crop.
In addition to all the wonderful book sources you mention, please don’t forget self-published books. It is true that there is a wide range of quality in these types of published works. But, it is also true that there are many good books that simply have not been selected by mainstream publishers. As an example, my book has won tremendous praise from local children and their parents.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
Jason Alter
Author, John Fastramp and the Dakota 3000 Challenge
(www.johnfastramp.com)
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