Book Purge!

Whitney and I decided to clear the shelves a bit... getting rid of books?!?!?!  WHAT?!?!  How could we?  After Monday's post we both got to thinking about our personal collections (which we adore and which are both growing exponentially by the year).  Whitalics here, you all know how freaked out I was on Monday thinking I couldn't imagine parting with a single book!

Here's our conclusion... there are the books you LOVE, there are the books you LIKE, there are the books you think will come in handy someday, and then there are the books that are just okay. (Or repeat copies, or things your kids have outgrown...)  

So, what's the point on hanging onto those 'okay' books when they are taking up valuable LOVE book real-estate?  Are we wrong? We are not wrong! I need to fill that space with more books I love!! Oh right, this is about purging!

Now for the challenge:  a 50 book purge.  We were both a bit trepidations. (I'm not gonna lie, I didn't think I could do it.. 50 books seemed like ALOT!)  Guess what?  It wasn't very difficult. (At all.)  

Mine are going to my small town library (I'll know where to look if I actually do miss any of them). Mine are headed to a variety of places, one of which will be my local book exchange where I can earn back money to buy some more books---I need help don't I?

It was good for me.  Therapeutic. (Mostly I just felt dumb about making such a big deal on Monday when these 50 books are so easy to part with.)

Now if I can just do some major purging of stuff... I've got too much stuff... (I was thinking the same thing.  I need to find 50 of something else to get rid of too!!)

Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote

Duncan Tonatiuh's Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale was released earlier this month.  First I've gotta say, the artwork is really fantastic.  I love mixed media!  This is hand drawn then collaged digitally.  The colors are stunning.

Now, the subject matter.  The book is about Pancho Rabbit, his father left to find work in the north because of the horrible drought... but he doesn't return when he's supposed to.  So, Pancho sets out in search of him.

On his way he meets Coyote (which is slang for a person who smuggles people across the US and Mexican borders).  Coyote makes promises, but things do not go very well during their difficult journey.   In the end Pancho is reunited with his father and they return to their family (though in real life the story does not always end well).
This book is the perfect way to introduce children to the complex issue of immigration and migrants.  There are SO MANY strong feelings about the subject.  This is a great book, I highly recommend it.

ps There is an author's note, post story, which talks about this subject in greater depth.  There is also a glossary where you can find definitions of all Spanish words in the book.  Both of which I found very interesting and useful.

The Mouse Books by Monique Felix

Oh these books!  I really think they're so fabulous! But for some reason their availability on Amazon is extremely sporadic.. Why is that?  Why are some things from the series readily available and others are like impossible to find... (I suppose I'll never know.)

So, these are sweet little wordless books starring mice who apparently find themselves in the books by surprise.

First, let's see The Boat...

And now, The House...

It appears that The House is being reissued later this year under the title The Valentine.  (I saw several others which seem to be reissues too...I hope they all get brought back!!)

Personally, I'm only familiar with her "mouse book" series. However, Monique Felix has a lot of other titles that I think look great, like: 

My Shadowby Robert Louis Stevenson (where her artwork also stars a mouse)
 and The Good Ship Crocodileby J. Patrick Lewis (which comes out later this year.)  

Also, I'm sure her illustrations for Hansel & Gretel are fantastic...but it's one that seems to be unavailable. I'll have to check the library!  

Board Book Storage

Welcome to my book storage disasters.... today we're talking in specific about board books. The top shelf there is supposed to look all nice and orderly filled with favorite board books.

Then there are my baskets filled with board books for easy access.  We have two of these and they are both a mess.  (They do not make the books easily accessible- more like easily messable I'm sorry to say.)

Here we have the board book storage upstairs.  WHAT A MESS!  This whole shelf has become a disaster area.

When Whit suggested we tackle some organization issues I figured this would be a great place to start with new baby a mere 8 weeks away.

disclaimer: I haven't solved the problem yet.  I had NO IDEA we owned this many board books.

Here's what I've come up with so far...
Kitten is the main consumer of board books in our house these days (baby will be sharing a room with Kitten).  Because of this, it makes sense for the majority of board books to live in their room.  I bought three rectangular bins that fit underneath her bed, and filled them up with books.

Already she's been picking a better variety of books to read.  It's great because you can see the titles of the books easily, and they are easy to put back too.  The problem is, I probably needed 10 baskets instead of three...

I've heard its bad feng shui to use the space under the bed for storage... still I'm going with it.  Makes for great access for bedtime stories!

ps: I mentioned several times the crazy amount of books I own... well after Whit's post yesterday we've both decided to take the challenge of slimming our book collections a bit.  (fyi this is actually just an excuse to make room for more books we want to buy and own...)  We'll each try to find 50 books that can leave our collections.  I may be able to do that with board books alone.  ;)  (I'm joking Whit)  We'll post about our experience on Friday.

Getting Rid of Books

Hi there! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  I didn't get the no whining wish (if you're wondering) but it was still a great mother's day! I have 3 beautiful girls who I get to hug and snuggle and laugh with and read to and just love every single day! So, it was a good day to be me!

Anyway, I know I've mentioned my lack of organization and my wish for more book storage plenty of times so I won't bore you with that again!  I just came across something I saw online and I wanted to ask what you guys thought.

You see, I've been working on reorganizing our books so we can actually find the one we want when we want to read it (you know simple stuff like that.) I got some clear magazine boxes which I'm using for 2 purposes:

1) to group books (the clear boxes allow us to see the titles inside so easily)
2) to act sort of as bookends between sections of unboxed books

Anyway I'm having a hard time deciding how to categorize them.  Of course favorite characters and favorite authors were easy. (Those would be the ones that have found homes in the magazine boxes.) It's the others I'm stuck on...

We aren't quite ready for alphabetical yet, so I'm thinking by genre, or topic...? For help, I google searched something about organizing children's books and I came upon an interesting thread.

Here's the original post.  This is from The Bump, if you're wondering. (Also, I have no idea what The Bump is, as far as the site is concerned. Just thought I'd let you know that.)

A user asked:
We have so many books.  SO MANY.  Partly because I was a primary teacher, and partly because we love to read, but it's overwhelming.  The kids have books in their rooms, and we have them in the living room and family room and some stored away in the office.  But we end up reading the same ones over and over because they are the ones that end up on the top of the pile of the overflowing book basket.  I went and got new shelves from Ikea and some bins and was thinking of sorting them by theme or something, and maybe pulling some out to be brought out monthly based on holidays or seasons - I think if I labeled them well, it could happen - but still.  Looking for better ideas.

Here's the response that I'm wondering about:

My mom was a school librarian for 20 years.

She said that they were ALWAYS told to get rid of the books that they aren't reading, no matter how much you may love the idea of having them. Too many books overwhelm kids and they end up doing exactly what you mention-- reading the same 5-10 books over and over.

I recently got rid of about 40 books and I will say that she's right. The kids seem less overwhelmed and are actually flipping through what's there and making lots of different choices. I may pare it down even further...

What'd you think of that? Would you pare your books way down? Like would you get rid of 40 books at one time?  That seems drastic to me...though when it comes to books I may have hoarding tendencies. 

I will say this in my defense, my kids don't just read the same books over and over. Of course they have favorites, but they like variety, too.  They love looking through the shelves and finding something new or something they haven't read in a long time.  

I've always felt like having a lot of books was a good thing...now I'm wondering if someone needs to do and intervention for me.

Book-aholics unite?  Or, do I need book hoarders anonymous?

PS- I'm still open to idea about how to group our books. And, while the magazine boxes are a cheap, quick help for now, I think ultimately the best solution for me is ALOT of forward facing book storage! 

My landing may not get filled with built-ins after all. Instead it may get lots of nice long thin floating shelves...my poor husband.