

There are a couple of great reasons why we should be thrifting books for kids as much as possible.
First is the cost. A small fortune can be spent on new books and new books are great for gifts but you can fill in your library of children’s books for a few dollars with second hand books.
The second reason is of course that it is better for the environment. Do we really need all these books to go into our land fills?

Also, like the board books shown here second hand books are already broken in and therefore less precious. Kids can be kids with the used book. No worrying about torn pages, bite marks or ripped dust jackets and less stress for you.

You can find all the classics at the thrift shop. Kids outgrow books so you can find them in pretty good condition too.

You can buy vintage books too. I remember all of the old books my grandparents had. They were strange and weird and we loved to read through them.

Those old books have amazing illustrations too. Just make sure you read through them since many contain topics, stereotypes or wording that does not stand up to our modern inclusive and open minded ideas.

You can also find and revisit some of your own childhood favorites like I did here.

I spent many hours reading the stories in the Alfred Hitchcock’s Haunted Houseful and love looking at the weird recipes in the junior cookbook. Cherry fill ups? Yum.

I also find the randomness of the offerings at the thrift shop to be intriguing. You can find topics that you didn’t know you were interested in. Again the vintage books are so fun to explore.

Even books that have seen better days are useful. You can salvage the images for collage or other art projects if the book is not usable.

Looking at vintage books it is fun to see how far we have come as far as technology and science.

Even though physical books may be going the way of newspapers and slowly being phased out children’s books are still important to have. It is just so cozy to read to a small child while you page through a book together. I’m sorry but computers and tablets are just not something that I want to cuddle up to. How about you?