A Goal for books4yourkids.com

Books to the ceiling, 

Books to the sky, 

My pile of books is a mile high!

How I love them! How I need them!

I'll have a long beard 

by the time I read them.

Arnold Lobel from Whiskers & Rhymes

Since I have been working with, reading and loving kid's books for much longer than I have been writing about them, my hope when I started this blog was to introduce readers to older books that might not be getting the shelf space and attention at your local bookstores and libraries that the newer books always demand. Despite my lofty ideals, I frequently find myself both starstruck and awestruck by the new books that arrive on the shelves at the bookstore where I work (and on my doorstep when I am fortunate enough to receive review copies.) And, I must admit that my sense of wonder for the new has kept me from reading as much of the old as I had originally intended to. The piles of books in my house are constantly growing, but lately I have noticed that the piles of older books I want to read and review are getting especially large and demanding of my attention. As an avid trader at PaperBackSwap I have been building my library of older titles over the last three years and I cannot ignore these books any longer. So, this is my longwinded way of telling you that I am committing myself to reading ONLY from the pile of books pictured below for at least a month, hopefully two. This will not be easy though. I have seen the fall catalogs for my two favorite publishers of kid's books, Candlewick Press and Amulet Books and I am very excited. Until those new fall books start rolling in, this is what awaits me! 

And, for those of you interested, below is a picture of my bookshelf. While there are bookshelves loaded with books in every room of my home except the bathrooms, this is MY shelf that is overflowing with kid's books, almost all of which I have read. The books piled on the top (aside from the three complete sets of Harry Potter, two US versions, one UK edition) are adult books from the days when I actually used to read more mature works. To the left of the picture is a NEW BOOKSHELF waiting to be assembled by my husband! Hopefully this will be large enough to hold the 150+ books that I still have not read.

Overloaded bookshelf about to get some relief.

 After many hours and shuffling of books, I made them all fit and even managed to tidy it up a bit! Note the new bookshelf on the left, assembled but sagging under the weight. A new bookshelf is going up in my 6 year old son's room that will hold all the books he can read now, all the books he should be able to read by the end of first grade and, the carrot on the stick to keep him developing that reading muscle, all the Harry Potter books. While he has seen the first three movies in the series, we have not allowed him to see the rest so that when he does read the books the story will be quasi-fresh for him.

This groaning new bookshelf holds all the books I want to read and review. Much more than that pile in the picture above and sure to expand. Hope I don't really grow a beard trying to read them all!